¹And it came about in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem; and he camped against it, and they built a siege-wall against it all around.

²And the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

³In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine grew strong in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

⁴Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war, by night, went by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden, while the Chaldeans were against the city all around; and he went in the direction of the Arabah.

⁵And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and they overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

⁶And they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they spoke justice with him.

⁷And the sons of Zedekiah they slaughtered before his eyes; and the eyes of Zedekiah he blinded, and he bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.

⁸And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month — that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, chief of the guardsmen, servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

⁹He burned the house of Yahweh, and the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; and every great man's house he burned with fire.

¹⁰And the whole army of the Chaldeans who were with the chief of the guardsmen pulled down the walls of Jerusalem all around.

¹¹And Nebuzaradan, chief of the guardsmen, took into exile the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those who had fallen away to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the crowd.

¹²But some of the poor of the land the chief of the guardsmen left behind as vinedressers and ploughmen.

¹³And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of Yahweh, and the stands, and the sea of bronze that was in the house of Yahweh, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and they carried their bronze off to Babylon.

¹⁴And the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the dishes, and all the utensils of bronze with which they served, they took.

¹⁵And the fire-pans and the bowls — those that were gold, gold, and those that were silver, silver — the chief of the guardsmen took.

¹⁶The two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of Yahweh — there was no weighing of the bronze of all these utensils.

¹⁷The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a capital of bronze was on it, and the height of the capital was three cubits; and a network and pomegranates were on the capital all around, all of bronze; and the second pillar was like these, with the network.

¹⁸And the chief of the guardsmen took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the vestibule.

¹⁹And from the city he took one court official, who was overseer over the men of war, and five men of those who saw the face of the king, who were found in the city; and the scribe of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city.

²⁰And Nebuzaradan, chief of the guardsmen took them and led them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

²¹And the king of Babylon struck them down, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile away from its ground.

²²As for the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon left behind, he appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, over them.

²³All the commanders of the armies, they and the men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, and they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah — Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite, they and their men.

²⁴And Gedaliah swore an oath to them and to their men, and said to them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans; dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well for you.”

²⁵And it came about in the seventh month that Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal seed came with ten men, and they struck down Gedaliah, and he died, and also the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

²⁶Then all the people, from small to great, and the commanders of the armies, rose up and went to Egypt, for they were afraid in the face of the Chaldeans.

²⁷And it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil-merodak, king of Babylon, in the year he became king, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of the house of prison.

²⁸And he spoke good things with him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

²⁹He changed his prison clothes, and ate bread continually before him all the days of his life.

³⁰And his allowance, a continual allowance, was given to him from the king, the word of a day in its day, all the days of his life.