⁴ But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.

Israel Exiled to Assyria

⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, ^(A)the king of Assyria captured Samaria and ^(B)took Israel away into exile to Assyria, and ^(C)settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of ^(D)Gozan, and ^(E)in the cities of the Medes.

^12 (A)Then Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother and his servants and his commanders and his officials. So ^(B)the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign.

¹⁴ Then ^(A)he took away into exile all Jerusalem and all the commanders and all the mighty men of valor, ^(B)10,000 captives, and ^(C)all the craftsmen and the smiths. None was left ^(D)except the poorest people of the land.

^7 (A)And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; then he ^(B)blinded the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.

¹¹ Then ^(A)the rest of the people who were left in the city and the defectors who had defected to the king of Babylon and the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took away into exile.

Joahaz Reigns over Judah

36 ^(A)Then the people of the land took ^[a](B)Joahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in place of his father in Jerusalem. ^2 [b]Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. ³ Then the king of Egypt had him removed in Jerusalem and imposed on the land a fine of one hundred ^[c]talents of silver and one talent of gold. ⁴ Then the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But ^(C)Neco took Joahaz his brother and brought him to Egypt.

Jehoiakim Reigns over Judah

^5 (D)Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God. ⁶ Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up ^(E)against him and ^(F)bound him with bronze chains to lead him off to Babylon. ^7 (G)Nebuchadnezzar also brought some of the articles of the house of Yahweh to Babylon and put them in his temple at Babylon. ^8 (H)Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and ^[d]the abominations which he did, and what was found against him, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son became king in his place.

Jehoiachin Reigns over Judah

^9 (I)Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem, and he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh. ^10 (J)And at the turn of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon with the valuable articles of the house of Yahweh, and he made his relative ^(K)Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Zedekiah Reigns over Judah

^11 (L)Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹² And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God; ^(M)he did not humble himself ^(N)before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke from the mouth of Yahweh. ^13 (O)He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear allegiance by God. But ^(P)he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God of Israel. ¹⁴ Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people were very unfaithful following all the abominations of the nations; and they defiled the house of Yahweh which He had set apart as holy in Jerusalem.

The Chaldeans Destroy Jerusalem

¹⁵ And Yahweh, the God of their fathers, ^(Q)sent word to them ^[e]again and again by the hand of His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His habitation; ¹⁶ but they continually ^(R)mocked the messengers of God, ^(S)despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, ^(T)until the wrath of Yahweh arose against His people, until there was no remedy. ^17 (U)Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who killed their choice men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on choice man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. ^18 (V)And all the articles of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king and of his officials, he brought them all to Babylon. ¹⁹ Then ^(W)they burned the house of God and tore down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles. ²⁰ And those who had escaped from the sword he ^(X)took away into exile to Babylon; and ^(Y)they were slaves to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, ^21 (Z)to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until ^(AA)the land had made up for its sabbaths. ^(AB)All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath ^[f](AC)until seventy years were fulfilled.

The Walls of Jerusalem Torn Down

39 ^[a]Now when Jerusalem was captured ^[b](A)in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his military force came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it; ² in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city was ^(B)breached. ³ Then all the ^(C)officials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the ^(D)Middle Gate: Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the ^[c]Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the ^[d]Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon. ⁴ Now it happened that when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they ^(E)fled and went out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate ^(F)between the two walls; and he went out toward the ^[e]Arabah. ⁵ But the military force of the ^(G)Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the ^[f](H)plains of Jericho; and they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at ^(I)Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he spoke judgment on him. ⁶ Then the ^(J)king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah ^(K)before his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slaughtered all the ^(L)nobles of Judah. ⁷ He then ^(M)blinded Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in ^(N)fetters of bronze to bring him to ^(O)Babylon. ⁸ The Chaldeans also ^(P)burned with fire the house of the king and the houses of the people, and they ^(Q)tore down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹ And as for the rest of the people who remained in the city, the ^[g](R)defectors who had gone over to him and ^(S)the rest of the people who remained, ^(T)Nebuzaradan the ^(U)captain of the bodyguard took them away into exile in Babylon.