The Second Book of the Kings

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- Chapter 25 -

(2 Chronicles 36:15–21; Jeremiah 39:1–10)

After Zedekiah had been ruling for nine years, on the tenth day of the tenth month of that year, King Nebuchadnezzar arrived with his whole army. They surrounded Jerusalem. Against the walls of the city, they built ramps made of earth, so that they could climb up and attack the city.

It took them two years to do that.

After Zedekiah had been ruling for eleven years, by the ninth day of the fourth month of that year, the famine had become very bad. All the people’s food was gone.

Then the Babylonian soldiers broke through part of the city wall, and that enabled them to enter the city. All the soldiers of Judah tried to escape. But the Babylonian soldiers surrounded the city, so the king and the soldiers of Judah waited until it was nighttime. Then they fled through the gate that was between the two walls near the king’s park. They ran across the fields and started to go down to the plain along the Jordan River.

But the Babylonian soldiers chased after them. They caught the king when he was by himself in the plains of Jericho. He was by himself because all his soldiers had abandoned him.

The Babylonian soldiers took King Zedekiah to the city of Riblah in Babylonia. There the king of Babylon decided what they would do to punish him.

The king of Babylon forced Zedekiah to watch as the Babylonian soldiers killed all of Zedekiah’s sons. Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes. They put bronze chains on his hands and feet and took him to the city of Babylon.

The Temple Destroyed

(Jeremiah 52:12–23)

On the seventh day in the fifth month of that year, after Nebuchadnezzar had been ruling for nineteen years, Nebuzaradan arrived in Jerusalem. He was one of King Nebuchadnezzar’s officials; he was in command of the men who guarded the king.

He ordered his soldiers to burn down Yahweh’s temple, the king’s palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem. So they burned down all the important buildings in the city.

Then Nebuzaradan supervised the Babylonian soldiers as they tore down the walls surrounding Jerusalem.

After that, he and his soldiers took to Babylon the people who were still living in the city, the other people who lived in the region of Judah, and the soldiers who had previously surrendered to the Babylonian army.

But Nebuzaradan allowed some of the very poor people to stay in Judah to take care of the vineyards and to plant crops in the fields.

The Babylonian soldiers broke into pieces the bronze pillars, the bronze stands with wheels, and the large bronze tank known as “The Sea,” all of which were in the temple courtyard, and they took all the bronze to Babylon.

They also took the pots, the shovels, the instruments for snuffing out the lamps, the dishes, and all the other bronze items that the Israelite priests had used for offering sacrifices in the temple.

The soldiers also took away the pans for the ashes of the sacrifices, the basins, and all the other items made of gold or silver.

The bronze from the two pillars, the bronze stands with wheels, and the huge tank that was called “The Sea,” were all so very heavy that they could not be weighed. These things had been made for the temple when Solomon was the king of Israel.

Each of the pillars was eight and one-third meters high. The bronze capital of each pillar was one and one-third meters high. They were each decorated all around with something that looked like a net made of bronze chains connecting bronze pomegranates.

Captives Carried to Babylon

(Jeremiah 52:24–30)

Nebuzaradan took with him to Babylon Seraiah, the high priest; Zephaniah, his assistant; and the three men who guarded the entrance to the temple.

From the people who were still left in Jerusalem, he took one officer from the Judean army, five of the king’s advisors, the chief secretary of the army commander who was in charge of recruiting men to join the army, and sixty other important Judean men.

Nebuzaradan took them all to the king of Babylon at the city of Riblah.

There at the city of Riblah, in the province of Hamath, the king of Babylon commanded that they all be executed. That is what happened when the people of Judah were taken forcefully from their land to Babylon.

Gedaliah Governs in Judah

(Jeremiah 40:1–16)

Then King Nebuchadnezzar appointed a man named Gedaliah to be the governor of the people who he still allowed to live in Judah. Gedaliah was a son of Ahikam and a grandson of Shaphan.

When all the army commanders in Judah and their soldiers found out that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah to be the governor, they met with him at the city of Mizpah. These commanders were Ishmael son of Nethaniah; Johanan son of Kareah; Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, from the city of Netophah; and Jaazaniah, from the region of Maacah.

Gedaliah solemnly promised them that the officials from Babylon were not planning to harm them. He said, “You may live in this land without being afraid; you should obey the king of Babylon. If you do, everything will go well for you.”

The Murder of Gedaliah

(Jeremiah 41:1–10)

But in the seventh month of that year, Ishmael, whose grandfather Elishama was in the family descended from King David, went to Mizpah along with ten other men. They assassinated Gedaliah and all the men with him. There were also men from Judah and men from Babylon whom they assassinated.

Then many of the people from Judah, important people and unimportant ones, and the army commanders were very afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them, so they fled to Egypt.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison

(Jeremiah 52:31–34)

Thirty-seven years after King Jehoiachin of Judah had been taken to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar’s son Awel-Marduk became the king of Babylon. He was kind to Jehoiachin, and on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of that same year, he released Jehoiachin from prison.

He always spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and honored him more than the other kings who had been taken to Babylon.

He gave Jehoiachin new clothes to replace the clothes that he had been wearing in prison, and he allowed Jehoiachin to eat at the king’s table every day for the rest of his life.

The king of Babylon also gave him money every day, so that he could buy the things that he needed. The king continued to do that until Jehoiachin died.

(2 Chronicles 36:15–21; Jeremiah 39:1–10)

In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it around it.

So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city around it); and the king went by the way of the Arabah.

But the Chaldean army pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

Then they captured the king and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they passed judgment on him.

They killed Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, then put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

The Temple Destroyed

(Jeremiah 52:12–23)

Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

He burned the LORD’s house, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned every great house with fire.

All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive the rest of the people who were left in the city and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon—all the rest of the multitude.

But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

The Chaldeans broke up the pillars of bronze that were in the LORD’s house and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the LORD’s house, and carried the bronze pieces to Babylon.

They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered.

The captain of the guard took away the fire pans, the basins, that which was of gold, for gold, and that which was of silver, for silver.

The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases, which Solomon had made for the LORD’s house, the bronze of all these vessels was not weighed.

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

Captives Carried to Babylon

(Jeremiah 52:24–30)

The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold;

and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and five men of those who saw the king’s face, who were found in the city; and the scribe, the captain 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.

Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.

The king of Babylon attacked them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.

Gedaliah Governs in Judah

(Jeremiah 40:1–16)

As for the people who were left in the land of Judah whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor.

Now when all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, Johanan the son of Kareah, Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.

Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and said to them, “Don’t be afraid because of the servants of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.”

The Murder of Gedaliah

(Jeremiah 41:1–10)

But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal offspring came, and ten men with him, and struck Gedaliah so that he died, with the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mizpah.

All the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and came to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison

(Jeremiah 52:31–34)

In 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, released Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison,

and he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon,

and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life;

and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him from the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.

Footnotes

(a)25:17 A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters.