Jeremiah 52

1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he was king eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

2He did what was evil in Yahweh's sight, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

3Because of Yahweh's anger, this took place in Jerusalem and Judah until he expelled them from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4In the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came—he and his entire army—against Jerusalem; they encamped against it and built siegeworks against it all around.

5The city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

6In the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, famine gripped the city severely, with no bread left for the country's people.

7The city was breached, and all the fighting men fled, going out from the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king's garden, while the Chaldeans surrounded the city; then they took the road to the Arabah.

8The Chaldean army chased after the king and caught Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, while all his army scattered from him.

9They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed judgment on him.

10The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes, and also all Judah's princes in Riblah.

11The king of Babylon put out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him in bronze fetters, brought him to Babylon, and confined him in the prison house until the day of his death.

12In the fifth month, on the tenth of the month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard who stood before the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

13He burned the house of Yahweh and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burned with fire.

14All the army of the Chaldeans accompanying the captain of the guard broke down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.

15Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard exiled the poor of the people, the rest of those remaining in the city, those who fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

16Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left the poorest of the land as vinedressers and farmers.

17The Chaldeans broke the bronze pillars of Yahweh's house, the bases, and the bronze sea in Yahweh's house, and carried all their bronze to Babylon.

18They took the pots, shovels, snuffers, bowls, spoons, and all the bronze vessels in which they ministered.

19The captain of the guard took the basins, the firepans, the bowls, the caldrons, the lampstands, the spoons, and the bowls—which were of gold in gold and of silver in silver.

20The bronze of all these vessels—the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls under the bases that King Solomon made for the house of Yahweh—had no weight.

21The pillars were eighteen cubits high—the height of one pillar—and a cord twelve cubits long encircled it; its thickness was four fingers. It was hollow.

22A brass capital was on it, and one capital stood five cubits high, with network and pomegranates around the capital, all of brass; the second pillar also had pomegranates like these.

23There were ninety-six pomegranates on a side; all the pomegranates were one hundred on the network all around.

24The chief of the guards took Seraiah the head priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three who watched the threshold.

25From the city he took one eunuch who was overseer of the fighting men, and seven men among those seeing the king's face who were found in the city, and the scribe of the army captain who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.

26Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

27The king of Babylon struck them and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath, exiling Judah from its soil.

28These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar exiled in the seventh year: three thousand twenty-three Jews.

29In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred thirty-two persons from Jerusalem.

30In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard exiled seven hundred forty-five Jewish persons: all the persons, four thousand six hundred.

31In the thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin's captivity as king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, raised the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of the prison house.

32He spoke well to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

33He altered his prison clothing. He ate bread before him continually all the days of his life.

34His allowance, a continual allowance, was given to him by the king of Babylon—a daily portion day by day—until the day of his death, all the days of his life.