Jeremiah 52

The fall of Jerusalem

1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 2He did what was evil in the LORD's sight, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3Because of the LORD's anger, events in Jerusalem and Judah reached the point where he cast them out of his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army. They camped outside it and built siegeworks all around. 5The city remained under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 6By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was severe, and the people had no bread. 7Then the city wall was breached. All the fighting men fled from the city by night through the gate between the two walls near the king's garden. With the Chaldeans surrounding the city, they took the road toward the Arabah. 8The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah on the plains of Jericho. His whole army had scattered away from him. 9They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on him. 10The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes. He also slaughtered all Judah's officials at Riblah. 11Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him in bronze shackles. The king of Babylon took him to Babylon and kept him in custody until the day of his death.

Fire and exile

12On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 13He burned the LORD's house, the king's palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every great house he burned with fire. 14The whole Chaldean army with the captain of the guard tore down Jerusalem's walls all around. 15Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, carried into exile some of the poor, the people remaining in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population. 16But Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, left some of the poorest people of the land to tend vineyards and fields.

The temple furnishings

17The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars of the LORD's house, the stands, and the bronze Sea in the LORD's house. They carried all their bronze to Babylon. 18They took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, basins, dishes, and all the bronze utensils used in service. 19The captain of the guard took the bowls, firepans, basins, pots, lampstands, dishes, and pouring bowls—everything made of gold or silver. 20The two pillars, the one Sea, and the twelve bronze bulls under the stands, which King Solomon had made for the LORD's house—the bronze in all these objects was beyond weighing. 21Each pillar was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits around, measured with a cord. It was hollow, with walls four fingers thick. 22On top was a bronze capital five cubits high, with latticework and pomegranates all around it, all of bronze. The second pillar had the same decoration and pomegranates. 23There were ninety-six pomegranates facing outward; a hundred pomegranates in all surrounded the latticework.

Executions and deportations

24The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three threshold keepers. 25From the city he took one court official in charge of the fighting men, seven men who attended the king and were found in the city, the army commander's secretary who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the land found inside the city. 26Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27The king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried into exile from its own ground. 28These are the people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans; 29in Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; 30in Nebuchadnezzar's twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, carried away 745 Judeans. In all, 4,600 people.

Jehoiachin released

31In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he became king, lifted up Jehoiachin's head and released him from prison. 32He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the other kings with him in Babylon. 33Jehoiachin changed out of his prison clothes and ate regularly at the king's table for the rest of his life. 34The king of Babylon gave him a regular allowance, day by day, until his death, all the days of his life.