Jeremiah 52

1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. [a] 4 In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with his whole army against Jerusalem. They set up siege works around it and built a wall of squared stones all around it. [b] 5 And the city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 6 On the ninth of the month the famine took hold in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. 7 The city was broken into, and all the fighting men went out by night by way of the gate between the wall and the outer wall, near the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans were all around the city. They took the road toward the Arabah, 8 but the army of the Chaldeans chased after the king and caught up with him across from Jericho, and all his servants were scattered from him. 9 They seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and he spoke judgment on him. [c] 10 The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he slaughtered all the rulers of Judah at Riblah. 11 He put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in shackles, and the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon and put him in the mill house until the day he died. [d]

12 In the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood in the presence of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. [e] 13 He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all the houses of the city; every great house he burned with fire. 14 And the army of the Chaldeans that was with the captain of the guard tore down the whole wall around Jerusalem. [f] 16 The captain of the guard left the rest of the people as vinedressers and farmers.

17 The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands, and the bronze sea that was in the house of the Lord, and they took their bronze and carried it off to Babylon. 18 They took the rim and the bowls and the meat forks and all the bronze vessels used in the service, 19 and the sapphoth and the masmaroth and the pouring vessels and the lampstands and the incense dishes and the cups — what was gold, as gold, and what was silver, as silver — the captain of the guard took. [g] 20 As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze oxen under the sea, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of them was beyond weighing. 21 As for the pillars, each pillar was 52½ feet high, a line of 18 feet went around it, and it was about 3 inches thick all around. [h] 22 On them was a bronze capital, and the height of each capital was 7½ feet, with network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of bronze. The second pillar was the same, with eight pomegranates to every 18 inches for the 18 feet around. [i] 23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on one side, and all the pomegranates on the network around were a hundred.

24 The captain of the guard took the chief priest and the second priest and the three who guarded the way, 25 and one eunuch who was overseer of the fighting men, and seven men of renown who were in the king’s presence, found in the city, and the scribe of the forces who enrolled the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the middle of the city. 26 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah, 27 and the king of Babylon struck them down at Riblah in the land of Hamath. [j]

31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Joakim king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fourth of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he became king, lifted up the head of Joakim king of Judah and brought him out of the house where he was being kept. [k] 32 He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 He changed out of his prison clothes and ate bread continually in his presence all the days of his life. 34 And his allowance was given him continually by the king of Babylon, day by day, until the day he died.