Zedekiah Reigns in Judah^(A)

^11 (B)Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹² He did evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and ^(C)did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. ¹³ And he also ^(D)rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by God; but he ^(E)stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁴ Moreover all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more, according to all the abominations of the nations, and defiled the house of the Lord which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Fall of Jerusalem^(F)

^15 (G)And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. ¹⁶ But ^(H)they mocked the messengers of God, ^(I)despised His words, and ^(J)scoffed at His prophets, until the ^(K)wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.

^17 (L)Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who ^(M)killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand. ^18 (N)And all the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his leaders, all these he took to Babylon. ^19 (O)Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions. ²⁰ And ^(P)those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, ^(Q)where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, ²¹ to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of ^(R)Jeremiah, until the land ^(S)had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate ^(T)she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

⁹ behold, I will send and take ^(A)all the families of the north,’ says the Lord, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, ^(B)My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and ^(C)make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. ¹⁰ Moreover I will ^[a]take from them the ^(D)voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^(E)the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy ^(F)years.

¹² ‘Then it will come to pass, ^(G)when ^[b]seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ^(H)‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.