2 Kings 24:10-25:7
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
10 (A)At that time officers of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. 11 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, himself arrived at the city while his officers were besieging it. 12 Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, together with his mother, his ministers, officers, and functionaries, surrendered to the king of Babylon, who, in the eighth year of his reign,[a] took him captive. 13 He carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and broke up all the gold utensils that Solomon, king of Israel, had provided in the house of the Lord, as the Lord had decreed.(B) 14 He deported all Jerusalem: all the officers and warriors of the army, ten thousand in number, and all the artisans and smiths. Only the lowliest of the people of the land[b] were left. 15 He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, his wives, his functionaries, and the chiefs of the land he led captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.(C) 16 All seven thousand soldiers of the army, and a thousand artisans and smiths, all of them trained warriors, these too the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon. 17 In place of Jehoiachin the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king; he changed his name to Zedekiah.(D)
Reign of Zedekiah. 18 [c]Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.(E)
19 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. 20 This befell Jerusalem and Judah because the Lord was so angry that he cast them out of his sight.
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Chapter 25
1 In the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his whole army advanced against Jerusalem, encamped around it, and built siege walls on every side. 2 The siege of the city continued until the eleventh year of Zedekiah. 3 On the ninth day of the month,[d] when famine had gripped the city, and the people of the land had no more food, 4 the city walls were breached. That night, all the soldiers came to the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden (the Chaldeans had the city surrounded), while the king went toward the Arabah.[e] 5 But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook him in the desert near Jericho, abandoned by his whole army. 6 The king was therefore arrested and brought to Riblah to the king of Babylon, who pronounced sentence on him. 7 They slew Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes; then they put out his eyes, bound him with fetters, and brought him to Babylon.
Footnotes
- 24:12 The eighth year of his reign: that is, of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, not Jehoiachin’s. The year was 597 B.C.
- 24:14 People of the land: see note on 11:14.
- 24:18–25:30 Much of this material closely parallels Jer 52; some of the events are also recounted in Jer 39.
- 25:3 Ninth day of the month: the text does not say which month, but Jer 39:2 and 52:6 set the breaching of the city walls in the fourth month; in later times that was the date of a fast commemorating the event (cf. Zec 8:19). People of the land: the influential citizens (see note on 11:14); even they, whose resources went beyond those of the ordinary people, were starving.
- 25:4 The Hebrew text of this verse is missing some words. The present translation is based on a likely reconstruction.
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