1And it came to be in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar sovereign of Baḇel and all his army came against Yerushalayim and encamped against it, and they built a siege wall against it all around.

2And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of Sovereign Tsiḏqiyahu.

3By the ninth of the month the scarcity of food had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

4Then the city wall was breached, and all the men of battle fled at night by way of the gate between two walls, which was by the sovereign’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were still encamped all around against the city. And the sovereign went by way of the desert plain.

5And the army of the Chaldeans pursued the sovereign, and overtook him in the desert plains of Yeriḥo, and all his army was scattered from him.

6And they seized the sovereign and brought him up to the sovereign of Baḇel at Riblah, and they pronounced sentence on him.

7And they slaughtered the sons of Tsiḏqiyahu before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Tsiḏqiyahu, and bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Baḇel.

8And in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Sovereign Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar sovereign of Baḇel, Neḇuzaraḏan the chief of the guard, a servant of the sovereign of Baḇel, came to Yerushalayim.

9And he burned the House of יהוה and the house of the sovereign, and all the houses of Yerushalayim – even every great house he burned with fire.

10And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the chief of the guard broke down the walls of Yerushalayim all around.

11And Neḇuzaraḏan the chief of the guard took into exile the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who deserted to the sovereign of Baḇel, with the rest of the multitude.

12But the chief of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers.

13And the bronze columns that were in the House of יהוה, and the stands and the bronze Sea that were in the House of יהוה, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and took their bronze away to Baḇel.

14And they took the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the ladles, and all the bronze utensils the priests used in the service.

15And the chief of the guard took the fire holders and the basins which were of solid gold and solid silver.

16The bronze of all these utensils was beyond measure – the two columns, the one Sea, and the stands, which Shelomoh had made for the House of יהוה.

17The height of one column was eighteen cubits, and the capital on it was of bronze. And the height of the capital was three cubits, and the network and pomegranates all around the capital were all of bronze. And the second column was the same, with a network.

18And the chief of the guard took Serayah the chief priest, and Tsephanyahu the second priest, and the three doorkeepers.

19And out of the city he took a certain eunuch who was appointed over the men of battle, and five men of those who saw the sovereign’s face, who were found in the city, and the chief scribe 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.

20And Neḇuzaraḏan, chief of the guard, took them and made them go to the sovereign of Baḇel at Riblah.

21And the sovereign of Baḇel smote them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Ḥamath. So he exiled Yehuḏah from its own land.

22And he appointed Geḏalyahu son of Aḥiqam, son of Shaphan, over the people who were left in the land of Yehuḏah, whom Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar sovereign of Baḇel had left.

23And all the commanders of the armies, they and their men, heard that the sovereign of Baḇel had appointed Geḏalyahu. And they came to Geḏalyahu at Mitspah, even Yishma‛ĕl son of Nethanyah, and Yoḥanan son of Qarĕaḥ, and Serayah son of Tanḥumeth the Netophathite, and Ya‛azanyahu the son of a Ma‛aḵathite, they and their men.

24And Geḏalyahu swore to them and their men, and said to them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the sovereign of Baḇel, and let it be well with you.”

25And in the seventh month it came to be that Yishma‛ĕl son of Nethanyah, son of Elishama, of the seed of the reign, came with ten men and smote Geḏalyahu that he died, and the Yehuḏim, and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mitspah.

26And all the people rose up, small and great, and the commanders of the armies, and went to Mitsrayim, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

27And it came to be in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Yehoyaḵin sovereign of Yehuḏah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh of the month, that Ewil-Meroḏaḵ sovereign of Baḇel, in the year that he began to reign, released Yehoyaḵin sovereign of Yehuḏah from prison,

28and spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the sovereigns who were with him in Baḇel,

29and changed his prison garments. And he ate bread continually before the sovereign all the days of his life.

30And as his allowance, a continual allowance was given to him from the sovereign, a quota for each day, all the days of his life.