The Fall and Exile of Judah^(A)

25 In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and set up camp near it. They built siege mounds against it all around. ² The city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³ On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was severe in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land. ⁴ The city was breached, and all the fighting men fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which is by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They went along the way of the Arabah. ⁵ Then the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army deserted him. ⁶ So they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence upon him. ⁷ They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah. They bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.

⁸ In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹ He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every great house he burned with fire. ¹⁰ All the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard tore down the walls of Jerusalem all around. ¹¹ The rest of the people who remained in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the crowd Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard took into exile. ¹² But the captain of the bodyguard left some of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.

⁴ In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it; they built a siege wall all around it. ⁵ So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

⁶ In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was so severe in the city that there was no bread for the people of the land. ⁷ Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city, and they went by way of the Arabah. ⁸ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.

⁹ Then they took the king and carried him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath where he passed sentence on him. ¹⁰ The king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also slew all the officials of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹ Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and the king of Babylon bound him in chains and carried him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.

The Temple Burned

¹² Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard who served the king of Babylon came into Jerusalem, ¹³ and burned the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. Even all the large houses, he burned with fire. ¹⁴ And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. ¹⁵ Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poorest of the people, and the rest of the people who remained in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. ¹⁶ But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.