4In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around.

5The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

6By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the common people had no food.

7Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the Arabah.52:7 Dt 2:8

8The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered.

9The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.

10At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered the Judean commanders.

11Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody52:11 Lit in a house of guards until his dying day.52:4–11 2Kg 25:1–7; Jr 39:1–7

12On the tenth day of the fifth month — which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of52:12 Lit Jerusalem; he stood before the king of Babylon.

13He burned the Lord’s temple, the king’s palace, all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses.

14The whole Chaldean army with the captain of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.52:13–14 2Ch 36:19

15Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported some of the poorest of the people, as well as 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 craftsmen.

16But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.52:12–16 2Kg 25:8–12; Jr 39:8–10

17Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars for the Lord’s temple and the water carts and the bronze basin52:17 Lit sea that were in the Lord’s temple,52:17 1Kg 7:23,27 and they carried all the bronze to Babylon.

18They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.

19The captain of the guards took away the bowls, firepans, sprinkling basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and drink offering bowls52:19 Ex 25:29; 37:16; Nm 4:7 — whatever was gold or silver.

20As for the two pillars, the one basin, with the twelve bronze oxen under it, and the water carts52:20 LXX, Syr; MT reads oxen under the water carts that King Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.

21One pillar was 27 feet52:21 Lit 18 cubits tall, had a circumference of 18 feet,52:21 Lit 12 cubits was hollow — four fingers thick — 

22and had a bronze capital on top of it.52:22 1Kg 7:16–20,41–42; 2Ch 4:12–13 One capital, encircled by bronze grating and pomegranates, stood 7½ feet52:22 Lit five cubits high. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates.

23Each capital had ninety-six pomegranates all around it. All the pomegranates around the grating numbered one hundred.

24The captain of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers.

25From the city he took a court official52:25 Or a eunuch who had been appointed over the warriors; seven trusted royal aides52:25 Lit seven men who look on the king’s face found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and sixty men from the common people52:25 Lit the people of the land who were found within the city.

26Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

27The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from its land.52:17–27 2Kg 25:13–21

28These are the people Nebuchadnezzar deported:52:28 2Kg 24:12–16 in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;

29in his eighteenth year,52:29 Some Hb mss, Syr add he deported 832 people from Jerusalem;

30in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported 745 Jews. Altogether, 4,600 people were deported.