Fall and Captivity of Judah

1 ^fAnd in the ninth year of his reign, in the ^gtenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it. 2 So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3 On the ninth day of the ^hfourth month the ⁱfamine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. 4 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 ^jtwo walls, by the king’s garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah. 5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was ^kscattered from him. 6 Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him. 7 They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and ^lput out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and ^mtook him to Babylon.

8 In the ⁿfifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—^oNebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 And he ^pburned the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. 10 And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, ^qbroke down the walls around Jerusalem. 11 And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile. 12 But the captain of the guard ^rleft some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.

13 And the ^spillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the ^tstands and the bronze ^usea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried the bronze to Babylon. 14 And they took away the ^vpots and the shovels and the ^wsnuffers and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service, 15 the fire pans also and the bowls. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver. 16 As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these vessels was ^xbeyond weight. 17 The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits,¹ and on it was a ^ycapital of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits. A ^zlatticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capital. And the second pillar had the same, with the latticework.

18 And the captain of the guard took ^aSeraiah the chief priest and ^bZephaniah the second priest and the three ^ckeepers of the threshold; 19 and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and five men of the king’s council who were found in the city; and the secretary 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. 20 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 21 And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.

Jerusalem Captured and Burned

17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. 18 And all the ^fvessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. 19 And they ^gburned the house of God and ^hbroke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. 20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons ⁱuntil the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, 21 ^jto fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed ^kits Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill ^lseventy years.