1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
2He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.
3Because of the anger of the LORD, this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them out from his presence: Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem with all his army. He camped against it and built siege works all around it.
5So the city was under siege until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
6In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
7Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled. They went out of the city by night through the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden. (Now the Chaldeans were all around the city.) And they went by the way of the plain.
8But the army of the Chaldeans chased after the king, and they caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him.
9Then they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and there he passed sentence on him.
10The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He also killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah.
11Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah. The king of Babylon bound him in chains, carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.
12Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem.
13He burned the house of the LORD and the king's house. He burned with fire all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the great men.
14And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.
15Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away as captives some of the poor of the people, and 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.
16But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land to care for the vines and to work the fields.
17The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars that were in the house of the LORD, and the stands, and the bronze sea that was in the house of the LORD, and they carried all their bronze to Babylon.
18They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze vessels used in the service.
19The captain of the guard also took away the basins, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups: what was of gold as gold, and what was of silver as silver.
20The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the stands, which king Solomon had made for the house of the LORD: the bronze of all these things was too much to weigh.
21As for the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a line of twelve cubits went around it. It was four fingers thick, and it was hollow.
22On it was a bronze top piece. The height of one top piece was five cubits, with network and pomegranates all around it, all of bronze. The second pillar and its pomegranates were the same.
23There were ninety-six pomegranates on a side, and all the pomegranates on the network were a hundred all around.
24The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door.
25He also took out of the city an officer who was in charge of the men of war, and seven men who served close to the king and were found in the city, and the chief scribe of the army, who called up the people of the land for war, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the middle of the city.
26So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
27And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away as captives out of his own land.
28These are the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away as captives: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews;
29in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, he carried away as captives from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two people;
30in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away as captives seven hundred and forty-five of the Jews. All the people were four thousand six hundred.
31In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison.
32He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
33He changed Jehoiachin's prison clothes, and Jehoiachin ate bread before him regularly, all the days of his life.
34And for his food, the king of Babylon gave him a regular allowance, a portion every day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.