1In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem. He camped against it, and they built forts all around it.
2So the city was under siege until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
3On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no bread for the people of the land.
4Then the city was broken into, and all the fighting men fled by night through the gate between the two walls, which is by the king's garden. The Chaldeans were all around the city. And the king went toward the plain.
5But the army of the Chaldeans chased after the king, and caught up with him in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered away from him.
6So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.
7They killed the sons of Zedekiah in front of his eyes, and put out Zedekiah's eyes. They bound him with chains of brass and carried him to Babylon.
8In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan came to Jerusalem. He was the captain of the guard and a servant of the king of Babylon.
9He burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned every great man's house with fire.
10And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls all around Jerusalem.
11Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the crowd.
12But the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land to tend the vines and till the ground.
13The Chaldeans broke in pieces the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the sea of brass that was in the house of the LORD, and they carried the brass of them to Babylon.
14They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all the vessels of brass that were used in the service.
15The captain of the guard took away the firepans and the bowls, and whatever was of gold, as gold, and whatever was of silver, as silver.
16The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD: the brass of all these vessels was too much to weigh.
17The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the top on it was brass. The height of the top was three cubits, with network and pomegranates all around the top, all of brass. The second pillar was like these, with network as well.
18The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door.
19Out of the city he took an officer who was set over the fighting men, and five men who served in the king's presence and were found in the city, and the chief scribe of the army, who called up the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city.
20Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these men and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
21And the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their land.
22As for the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler over them.
23When all the captains of the armies and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. They were Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, Johanan the son of Careah, Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.
24Gedaliah made a promise on oath to them and to their men, and said to them, "Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you."
25But in the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of the royal family, came with ten men, and they struck Gedaliah down and he died. They also killed the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.
26Then all the people, small and great, and the captains of the armies, got up and went to Egypt, because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
27In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison.
28He spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
29So Jehoiachin changed out of his prison clothes, and he ate bread at the king's table all the days of his life.
30And the king gave him a regular allowance, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.