Jeremiah 52:1-34
52 Zed·e·kiʹah+ was twenty-one years old when he began to reign,+ and for eleven years he reigned in Jerusalem.+ And the name of his mother was Ha·muʹtal+ the daughter of Jeremiah of Libʹnah.+
2 And he continued to do what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah,+ according to all that Je·hoiʹa·kim+ had done.
3 For on account of the anger of Jehovah it occurred in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from before his face.+ And Zed·e·kiʹah proceeded to rebel against the king of Babylon.+
4 Finally it came about in the ninth year of his being king,+ in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Neb·u·chad·rezʹzar the king of Babylon came, he and all his military force, against Jerusalem,+ and they began to camp against her and to build against her a siege wall all around.+
5 So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zed·e·kiʹah.+
6 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month,+ the famine also got to be severe in the city and there proved to be no bread for the people of the land.*+
7 Finally the city was broken through;+ and as regards all the men of war, they began to run away+ and go forth from the city by night by the way of the gate between the double wall that is by the king’s garden,+ while the Chal·deʹans were all around against the city; and they kept going by the way of the Arʹa·bah.+
8 And a military force of the Chal·deʹans went chasing after the king,+ and they got to overtake Zed·e·kiʹah+ in the desert plains of Jerʹi·cho; and all his own military force was scattered from his side.+
9 Then they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon+ at Ribʹlah+ in the land of Haʹmath,+ that he might pronounce upon him judicial decisions.+
10 And the king of Babylon proceeded to slaughter the sons of Zed·e·kiʹah before his eyes,+ and also all the princes of Judah he slaughtered in Ribʹlah.+
11 And the eyes of Zed·e·kiʹah he blinded,+ after which the king of Babylon bound him with copper fetters and brought him to Babylon+ and put him in the house of custody until the day of his death.
12 And in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, that is, [in] the nineteenth year of King Neb·u·chad·rezʹzar,+ the king of Babylon, Neb·uʹzar·adʹan+ the chief of the bodyguard, who was standing before the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem.
13 And he proceeded to burn the house of Jehovah+ and the house of the king and all the houses of Jerusalem;+ and every great house he burned with fire.+
14 And all the walls of Jerusalem, round about, all the military forces of the Chal·deʹans that were with the chief of the bodyguard pulled down.+
15 And some of the lowly ones of the people and the rest of the people that were left remaining in the city+ and the deserters that had fallen away to the king of Babylon and the rest of the master workmen Neb·uʹzar·adʹan the chief of the bodyguard took into exile.+
16 And some of the lowly ones of the land Neb·uʹzar·adʹan the chief of the bodyguard let remain as vinedressers and as compulsory laborers.+
17 And the copper pillars+ that belonged to the house of Jehovah and the carriages+ and the copper sea+ that was in the house of Jehovah the Chal·deʹans broke to pieces and went carrying all the copper of them to Babylon.+
18 And the cans and the shovels+ and the extinguishers+ and the bowls+ and the cups and all the copper utensils with which they used to minister they took.+
19 And the basins+ and the fire holders and the bowls+ and the cans and the lampstands+ and the cups and the bowls that were of genuine gold,+ and those that were of genuine silver,+ the chief of the bodyguard took.+
20 And the two pillars,+ the one sea,+ and the twelve copper bulls+ that were under [the sea], the carriages,* that King Solʹo·mon had made for the house of Jehovah.+ There happened to be no weight [taken] of the copper of them—all these articles.+
21 And as regards the pillars, eighteen cubits* in height was each pillar,+ and a thread of twelve cubits itself would go around it;+ and its thickness was four fingerbreadths,* it being hollow.
22 And the capital upon it was of copper,+ and the height of the one capital was five cubits;+ and as regards the network and the pomegranates upon the capital, all around,+ the whole was of copper; and the second pillar had just the same as these, also the pomegranates.+
23 And the pomegranates came to be ninety-six, on the sides,* all the pomegranates being one hundred upon the network round about.+
24 Furthermore, the chief of the bodyguard took Se·raiʹah+ the chief priest and Zeph·a·niʹah+ the second priest and the three doorkeepers,+
25 and from the city he took one court official that happened to be commissioner over the men of war, and seven men of those having access to the king,*+ who were found in the city, and the secretary of the chief of the army, the one mustering the people of the land,* and sixty men* of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city.+
26 So these Neb·uʹzar·adʹan+ the chief of the bodyguard took and conducted them to the king of Babylon at Ribʹlah.+
27 And these the king of Babylon proceeded to strike down+ and to put them to death in Ribʹlah+ in the land of Haʹmath.+ Thus Judah went into exile from off its soil.+
28 These are the people whom Neb·u·chad·rezʹzar took into exile: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews.+
29 In the eighteenth year of Neb·u·chad·rezʹzar,+ from Jerusalem there were eight hundred and thirty-two souls.
30 In the twenty-third year of Neb·u·chad·rezʹzar, Neb·uʹzar·adʹan the chief of the bodyguard took Jews into exile, seven hundred and forty-five souls.+
All the souls were four thousand and six hundred.*
31 At length it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Je·hoiʹa·chin+ the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Eʹvil-merʹo·dach the king of Babylon, in the year of his becoming king,* raised up the head+ of Je·hoiʹa·chin the king of Judah and proceeded to bring him forth from the prison house.
32 And he began to speak with him good things and to put his throne* higher than the thrones of the [other] kings that were with him in Babylon.+
33 And he took off* his prison garments,+ and he ate bread+ before him constantly all the days of his life.+
34 And as for his allowance, there was a constant allowance given him from the king of Babylon, daily as due,* until the day of his death,+ all the days of his life.
Footnotes
^ “For the people of the land.” Heb., leʽamʹ ha·ʼaʹrets.
^ “Under [the sea], the carriages,” MTVg; LXX, “under the sea”; Sy, “under the sides of the sea.”
^ A cubit equaled 44.5 cm (17.5 in.).
^ A fingerbreadth equaled 1.85 cm (0.72 in.).
^ Lit., “windward.”
^ “Men.” Heb., ʼish.
^ “The people of the land.” Heb., ʽam ha·ʼaʹrets.
^ Lit., “from those seeing the king’s face.”
^ Lit., “his kingship.” Heb., mal·khu·thohʹ.
^ Or, “seat.”
^ Lit., “he changed.”
^ Lit., “a thing of a day on its day.”
