Chapter 52

  Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king; he was king for eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.  

  And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Jehoiakim had done.  

  And because of the wrath of the Lord this came about in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had sent them away from before him: and Zedekiah took up arms against the king of Babylon.  

  And in the ninth year of his rule, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came against Jerusalem with all his army and took up his position before it, building earthworks all round it.  

  So the town was shut in by their forces till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.  

  In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the store of food in the town was almost gone, so that there was no food for the people of the land.  

  Then an opening was made in the wall of the town, and all the men of war went in flight out of the town by night through the doorway between the two walls which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldaeans were stationed round the town:) and they went by the way of the Arabah.  

  And the Chaldaean army went after King Zedekiah and overtook him on the other side of Jericho, and all his army went in flight from him in every direction.  

  Then they made the king a prisoner and took him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath to be judged.  

  And the king of Babylon put the sons of Zedekiah to death before his eyes: and he put to death all the rulers of Judah in Riblah.  

  And he put out Zedekiah's eyes; and the king of Babylon, chaining him in iron bands, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.  

  Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, a servant of the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem.  

  And he had the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned with fire:  

  And the walls round Jerusalem were broken down by the Chaldaean army which was with the captain.  

  Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took away as prisoners the rest of the people who were still in the town, and those who had given themselves up to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the workmen.  

  But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, let the poorest of the land go on living there, to take care of the vines and the fields.  

  And the brass pillars which were in the house of the Lord, and the wheeled bases and the great brass water-vessel in the house of the Lord, were broken up by the Chaldaeans, who took all the brass away to Babylon.  

  And the pots and the spades and the scissors for the lights and the spoons, and all the brass vessels used in the Lord's house, they took away.  

  And the cups and the fire-trays and the basins and the pots and the supports for the lights and the spoons and the wide basins; the gold of the gold vessels, and the silver of the silver vessels, the captain of the armed men took away.  

  The two pillars, the great water-vessel, and the twelve brass oxen which were under it, and the ten wheeled bases, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord: the brass of all these vessels was without weight.  

  And as for the pillars, one pillar was eighteen cubits high, and twelve cubits measured all round, and it was as thick as a man's hand: it was hollow.  

  And there was a crown of brass on it: the crown was five cubits high, circled with a network and apples all of brass; and the second pillar had the same.  

  There were ninety-six apples on the outside; the number of apples all round the network was a hundred.  

  And the captain of the armed men took Seraiah, the chief priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three door-keepers;  

  And from the town he took the unsexed servant who was over the men of war, and seven of the king's near friends who were in the town, and the scribe of the captain of the army, who was responsible for getting the people of the land together in military order, and sixty men of the people of the land who were in the town.  

  These Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took with him to the king of Babylon at Riblah.  

  And the king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken prisoner away from his land.  

  These are the people whom Nebuchadrezzar took away prisoner: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews:  

  And in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he took away as prisoners from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons:  

  In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took away as prisoners seven hundred and forty-five of the Jews: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.  

  And in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin, king of Judah, had been taken prisoner, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the first year after he became king, took Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison.  

  And he said kind words to him and put his seat higher than the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.  

  And his prison clothing was changed, and he was a guest at the king's table every day for the rest of his life.  

  And for his food, the king gave him a regular amount every day till the day of his death, for the rest of his life.