1So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s eleven-year reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, marched against Jerusalem, and camped outside of it; and built forts and siege works all around it. 2And the siege lasted until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3By the ninth day of the fourth month, famine gripped the city - there was no food for the people. 4Then the city wall was breached, and all the soldiers fled by night by way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden. The Chaldeans (Babylonians) had surrounded the city; and King Zedekiah fled the city toward the Arabah (plain). 5And the Chaldean army pursued and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army scattered from him. 6So they took Zedekiah, and brought him to Riblah to the king of Babylon; and they pronounced sentence upon him. 7They killed Zedekiah’s sons of before his eyes, and then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon.

8And on the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, of Babylon, Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem; 9And he burned the Temple of the LORD, the king's palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every important building. 10And the army of the Chaldeans, who were under the command of the imperial guard, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. 11Then Nebuzar-adan, the commander of the guard, carried off the people who were left in the city, the deserters who surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the people. 12But Nebuzar-adan left the poor of the land to be vinedressers and farmers. 13And the bronze pillars, its bases, and the bronze sea that were in the Temple of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried those bronze pieces to Babylon. 14And they also carried off the utensils - pots, shovels, snuffers, spoons, and all items of bronze with which they ministered, 15The firepans, basins, and anything of gold, or silver, the captain of the guard took away. 16The weight of the bronze of the two pillars, one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the Temple of the LORD; and the utensils was beyond measure. 17The height of one bronze pillar was eighteen cubits, and the height of the capital at its top was three cubits; and they were decorated with braided work and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze; both pillars were the same.

18And the captain of the guard took Seraiah, the chief priest, Zephaniah, next in rank, and the three doorkeepers captive; 19And of those still in the city, he took an officer in command of the fighting men, the five men who were the king's advisors, the man who conscripted and mustered the men for the army, and sixty conscripts of the people, all of whom were found in the city. 20And Nebuzar-adan took these, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah: 21And Nebuchadnezzar had them all killed at Riblah, in the land of Hamath. And so Judah was carried away out of their land.

22Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, to be governor over the people they had left in the land of Judah. 23And when the commanders of the army in the field, and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, Johanan, son of Kareah, Seraiah, son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah, son of a Maacathite, came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah. 24And Gedaliah swore an oath to them, and their men, and said, “Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Settle in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall go well with you.” 25But in the seventh month, Ishmael, who was of royal blood, son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, came with ten men, and assassinated Gedaliah, and all the Jews and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 26And then all the people, both small and great, and the commanders of the armies, fled to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

27And on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, released Jehoiachin, king of Judah, from prison; 28He spoke kindly to him, and elevated his seat above the seats of the other kings that were with him in Babylon, 29And Jehoiachin changed his clothes from prison garb, and ate his food regularly before the king all the rest of his life. 30And he received a regular daily allowance from the king, all the days of his life.