He brought against them the king of the Babylonians, who slaughtered their young men in their temple. He did not spare young men or women, or even the old and aging. God handed everyone over to him.

所以，耶和华使迦勒底人的王来攻击他们，在他们圣殿里用刀杀了他们的壮丁，不怜恤他们的少男处女、老人白叟。耶和华将他们都交在迦勒底王手里。

所以，耶和华使迦勒底人的王来攻击他们，在他们圣殿里用刀杀了他们的壮丁，不怜悯他们的少男少女、老人长者。耶和华把所有的人都交在他手里。

所以，耶和华使迦勒底人的王来攻击他们，在他们圣殿里用刀杀了他们的壮丁，不怜悯他们的少男少女、老人长者。耶和华把所有的人都交在他手里。

耶和华使迦勒底人的王起兵攻打他们，在他们的圣殿里用刀击杀他们的壮丁，毫不怜悯少男少女、老人和年高者。耶和华把他们全部交在他的手中。

耶和华使迦勒底人的王上来攻打他们，在他们的圣殿里用刀杀了他们的壮丁，少男和少女以及年老衰弱的，他们都不怜惜；耶和华把所有这些人都交在迦勒底王的手里。

所以，耶和華使迦勒底人的王來攻擊他們，在他們聖殿裏用刀殺了他們的壯丁，不憐恤他們的少男處女、老人白叟。耶和華將他們都交在迦勒底王手裏。

所以，耶和華使迦勒底人的王來攻擊他們，在他們聖殿裏用刀殺了他們的壯丁，不憐憫他們的少男少女、老人長者。耶和華把所有的人都交在他手裏。

所以，耶和華使迦勒底人的王來攻擊他們，在他們聖殿裏用刀殺了他們的壯丁，不憐憫他們的少男少女、老人長者。耶和華把所有的人都交在他手裏。

耶和華使迦勒底人的王起兵攻打他們，在他們的聖殿裡用刀擊殺他們的壯丁，毫不憐憫少男少女、老人和年高者。耶和華把他們全部交在他的手中。

耶和華使迦勒底人的王上來攻打他們，在他們的聖殿裡用刀殺了他們的壯丁，少男和少女以及年老衰弱的，他們都不憐惜；耶和華把所有這些人都交在迦勒底王的手裡。

因此永恆主使迦勒底人的王上來攻擊他們，就在他們聖所的殿裏用刀殺了他們的壯丁，不顧惜壯丁或處女、老邁的或衰弱的；永恆主把這一切人都交在迦勒底王手裏。

故上帝使迦勒底王來攻之、以刃戮其丁壯於其聖室、不恤幼男少女、老人白叟、俱付其手、

使迦勒底王至、在聖室中、戮諸壯士、凡丁男、處女、耆年、耄耋者、俱無所惜、見虜於敵。

使迦勒底王來攻之、在聖殿中、以刃戮諸壯士、不恤幼男少女、老人白叟、主俱付於其手、

He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men or young women, the elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

The Lord brought the king of the Babylonians against them. The Babylonian army killed their young people with their swords at the temple. They didn’t spare young men or young women. They didn’t spare the old people or weak people either. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar.

Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand.

So the Lord brought the king of Babylon against them. The Babylonians killed Judah’s young men, even chasing after them into the Temple. They had no pity on the people, killing both young men and young women, the old and the infirm. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar.

So he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their fit young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young men or young women, elderly or aged; he handed them all over to him.

So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or frail; He handed them all over to him.

Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who 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.

Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or virgin, old man or hoary- headed: he gave them all into his hand.

So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their choice young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young men or young women, elderly or aged; He handed them all over to him.

Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave[ them] all into his hand.

Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or gray- headed. He gave them all into his hand.

Remember your covenant promises, for the dark regions of the earth are full of places where violence rules.

From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and priests, have been delivered over by the local kings to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment– right up to the present time.

Their widows will become in my sight more numerous than the grains of sand on the seashores. At noontime I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of their young men. I will cause anguish and terror to fall suddenly upon them.The mother who had seven children will grow faint. All the breath will go out of her. Her pride and joy will be taken from her in the prime of their life. It will seem as if the sun had set while it was still day. She will suffer shame and humiliation. I will cause any of them who are still left alive to be killed in war by the onslaughts of their enemies,” says the LORD.

“‘ If, however, you do not obey me and keep all these commandments–if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep all my commandments and you break my covenant–I for my part will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it.I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.“‘ If, in spite of all these things, you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins.I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze.Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land will not produce their fruit.“‘ If you walk in hostility against me and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction seven times according to your sins.I will send the wild animals against you and they will bereave you of your children, annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population so that your roads will become deserted.“‘ If in spite of these things you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me,I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you seven times on account of your sins.I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. Although you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands.When I break off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, and you will eat and not be satisfied.“‘ If in spite of this you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me,I will walk in hostile rage against you and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins.You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. I will abhor you.I will lay your cities waste and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas.I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled.I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.“‘ Then the land will make up for its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths.All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.“‘ As for the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer.They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand for you before your enemies.You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.“‘ As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ iniquities which are with them.However, when they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, by which they also walked in hostility against me( and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for their iniquity,I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.The land will be abandoned by them in order that it may make up for its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them, and they will make up for their iniquity because they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred my statutes.In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God.I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the LORD.’”These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the LORD established between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through Moses.

Look, O Lord! Consider! Whom have you ever afflicted like this? Should women eat their offspring, their healthy infants? Should priest and prophet be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary?ש( Sin/ Shin)The young boys and old men lie dead on the ground in the streets. My young women and my young men have fallen by the sword. You killed them when you were angry; you slaughtered them without mercy.ת( Tav)As if it were a feast day, you call enemies to terrify me on every side. On the day of the Lord’s anger no one escaped or survived. My enemy has finished off those healthy infants whom I bore and raised.

“ For I, the LORD, say:‘ I will surely bring on these people all the good fortune that I am hereby promising them. I will be just as sure to do that as I have been in bringing all this great disaster on them.

Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the LORD our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit.When such a person hears the words of this oath he secretly blesses himself and says,“ I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.” This will destroy the watered ground with the parched.The LORD will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger will rage against that man; all the curses written in this scroll will fall upon him and the LORD will obliterate his name from memory.The LORD will single him out for judgment from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in this scroll of the law.The generation to come– your descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who will come from distant places– will see the afflictions of that land and the illnesses that the LORD has brought on it.The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD destroyed in his intense anger.Then all the nations will ask,“ Why has the LORD done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger all about?”Then people will say,“ Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship.That is why the LORD’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses written in this scroll.So the LORD has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.”

They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the sky; the flesh of your loyal followers to the beasts of the earth.They have made their blood flow like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury them.

Then the LORD said to Moses,“ You are about to die, and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they are going. They will reject me and break my covenant that I have made with them.At that time my anger will erupt against them and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome them so that they will say at that time,‘ Have not these disasters overcome us because our God is not among us?’But I will certainly hide myself at that time because of all the wickedness they will have done by turning to other gods.

So let their children die of starvation. Let them be cut down by the sword. Let their wives lose their husbands and children. Let the older men die of disease and the younger men die by the sword in battle.

“ But if you ignore the LORD your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force:You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field.Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed.Your children will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.“ The LORD will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me.The LORD will plague you with deadly diseases until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess.He will afflict you with weakness, fever, inflammation, infection, sword, blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish.The sky above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron.The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.“ The LORD will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off.The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed.The LORD will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind.You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you.You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it.Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you.Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it.As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives.You will go insane from seeing all this.The LORD will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils– from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.The LORD will force you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there.You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the LORD will drive you.“ You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it.You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them.You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe.You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity.Whirring locusts will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil.The foreigners who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower.They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the LORD your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given you.These curses will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants.“ Because you have not served the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have,instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty you will serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you. They will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you.The LORD will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand,a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young.They will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, or lambs of your flocks until they have destroyed you.They will besiege all of your villages until all of your high and fortified walls collapse– those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the LORD your God has given you.You will then eat your own offspring, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege by which your enemies will constrict you.The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children.He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating( since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.Likewise, the most tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters,and will secretly eat her afterbirth and her newborn children( since she has nothing else), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.“ If you refuse to obey all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God,then the LORD will increase your punishments and those of your descendants– great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses.He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you.Moreover, the LORD will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, until you have perished.There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, because you will have disobeyed the LORD your God.This is what will happen: Just as the LORD delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess.The LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone.Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair.Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next.In the morning you will say,‘ If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say,‘ I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see.Then the LORD will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

The LORD was mindful of the calamity, and he brought it on us. For the LORD our God is just in all he has done, and we have not obeyed him.

So the LORD brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria. They seized Manasseh, put hooks in his nose, bound him with bronze chains, and carried him away to Babylon.

So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign.The city remained under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city was so severe the residents had no food.The enemy broke through the city walls, and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden.( The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley.But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho, and his entire army deserted him.They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where he passed sentence on him.Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. The king of Babylon then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.He burned down the LORD’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house.The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.But he left behind some of the poor of the land and gave them fields and vineyards.The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the LORD’s temple, as well as the movable stands and the big bronze basin called the“ The Sea.” They took the bronze to Babylon.They also took the pots, shovels, trimming shears, pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests.The captain of the royal guard took the golden and silver censers and basins.The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the LORD’s temple– including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called“ The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under“ The Sea,” and the movable stands– was too heavy to be weighed.Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet high. The bronze top of one pillar was about four and a half feet high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah, the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers.From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city.Nebuzaradan, captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed at Riblah in the territory of Hamath. So Judah was deported from its land.Now King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, as governor over the people whom he allowed to remain in the land of Judah.All of the officers of the Judahite army and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah to govern. So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers who came were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite.Gedaliah took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. He said,“ You don’t need to be afraid to submit to the Babylonian officials. Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.”But in the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah, as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, as well as the army officers, left for Egypt, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians might do.In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, King Evil-Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than the other kings who were with him in Babylon.Jehoiachin took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.He was given daily provisions by the king for the rest of his life until the day he died.

Now he has brought it about. The LORD has done just as he threatened to do. This disaster has happened because you people sinned against the LORD and did not obey him.

While I listened, he said to the others,“ Go through the city after him and strike people down; do no let your eye pity nor spare anyone!Old men, young men, young women, little children, and women– wipe them out! But do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary!” So they began with the elders who were at the front of the temple.He said to them,“ Defile the temple and fill the courtyards with corpses. Go!” So they went out and struck people down throughout the city.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it. The siege began in the tenth month of the ninth year that Zedekiah ruled over Judah.It lasted until the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year. On that day they broke through the city walls.Then Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, and all the other officers of the king of Babylon came and set up quarters in the Middle Gate.When King Zedekiah of Judah and all his soldiers saw them, they tried to escape. They departed from the city during the night. They took a path through the king’s garden and passed out through the gate between the two walls. Then they headed for the Jordan Valley.But the Babylonian army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho and captured him. They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah in the territory of Hamath and Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him there.There at Riblah the king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. The king of Babylon also had all the nobles of Judah put to death.Then he had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains to be led off to Babylon.The Babylonians burned down the royal palace, the temple of the LORD, and the people’s homes, and they tore down the wall of Jerusalem.Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took captive the rest of the people who were left in the city. He carried them off to Babylon along with the people who had deserted to him.But he left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing. He gave them fields and vineyards at that time.Now King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had issued orders concerning Jeremiah. He had passed them on through Nebuzaradan, the captain of his royal guard,“ Find Jeremiah and look out for him. Do not do anything to harm him, but do with him whatever he tells you.”So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, Nebushazban, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, and all the other officers of the king of Babylonsent and had Jeremiah brought from the courtyard of the guardhouse. They turned him over to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and the grandson of Shaphan, to take him home with him. But Jeremiah stayed among the people.Now the LORD had spoken to Jeremiah while he was still confined in the courtyard of the guardhouse,“ Go and tell Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian,‘ The LORD God of Israel who rules over all says,“ I will carry out against this city what I promised. It will mean disaster and not good fortune for it. When that disaster happens, you will be there to see it.But I will rescue you when it happens. I, the LORD, affirm it! You will not be handed over to those whom you fear.I will certainly save you. You will not fall victim to violence. You will escape with your life because you trust in me. I, the LORD, affirm it!”’”

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.He did what displeased the LORD just as Jehoiakim had done.What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the LORD’s anger when he drove them out of his sight. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year that Zedekiah ruled over Judah.The city remained under siege until Zedekiah’s eleventh year.By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city was so severe the residents had no food.They broke through the city walls, and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden.( The Babylonians had the city surrounded.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley.But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and his entire army deserted him.They captured him and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the territory of Hamath and he passed sentence on him there.The king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. He also had all the nobles of Judah put to death there at Riblah.He had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains. Then the king of Babylon had him led off to Babylon and he was imprisoned there until the day he died.On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.He burned down the LORD’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house.The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took into exile some of the poor, the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the rest of the craftsmen.But he left behind some of the poor and gave them fields and vineyards.The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the temple of the LORD, as well as the movable stands and the large bronze basin called the“ The Sea.” They took all the bronze to Babylon.They also took the pots, shovels, trimming shears, basins, pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests.The captain of the royal guard took the gold and silver bowls, censers, basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and vessels.The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the LORD’s temple( including the two pillars, the large bronze basin called“ The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under“ The Sea,” and the movable stands) was too heavy to be weighed.Each of the pillars was about 27 feet high, about 18 feet in circumference, three inches thick, and hollow.The bronze top of one pillar was about seven and one-half feet high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate-shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its pomegranate-shaped ornaments was like it.There were ninety-six pomegranate-shaped ornaments on the sides; in all there were one hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments over the latticework that went around it.The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers.From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city.Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed at Riblah in the territory of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile away from its land.Here is the official record of the number of people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year, 3, 023 Jews;in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem;in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, carried into exile 745 Judeans. In all 4, 600 people went into exile.In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, Evil-Merodach, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than the other kings who were with him in Babylon.Jehoiachin took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.He was given daily provisions by the king of Babylon for the rest of his life until the day he died.

But Jeshurun became fat and kicked, you got fat, thick, and stuffed! Then he deserted the God who made him, and treated the Rock who saved him with contempt.They made him jealous with other gods, they enraged him with abhorrent idols.They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known; to new gods who had recently come along, gods your ancestors had not known about.You have forgotten the Rock who fathered you, and put out of mind the God who gave you birth.But the LORD took note and despised them because his sons and daughters enraged him.He said,“ I will reject them, I will see what will happen to them; for they are a perverse generation, children who show no loyalty.They have made me jealous with false gods, enraging me with their worthless gods; so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them.For a fire has been kindled by my anger, and it burns to lowest Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and ignites the foundations of the mountains.I will increase their disasters, I will use up my arrows on them.They will be starved by famine, eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; I will send the teeth of wild animals against them, along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.The sword will make people childless outside, and terror will do so inside; they will destroy both the young man and the virgin, the infant and the gray-haired man.“ I said,‘ I want to cut them in pieces. I want to make people forget they ever existed.But I fear the reaction of their enemies, for their adversaries would misunderstand and say,“ Our power is great, and the LORD has not done all this!”’They are a nation devoid of wisdom, and there is no understanding among them.

The LORD sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets.Just as the LORD had announced, he rejected Judah because of all the sins which Manasseh had committed.

They plotted against him and by royal decree stoned him to death in the courtyard of the LORD’s temple.

I declare to you this very day that you will certainly perish! You will not extend your time in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

Now there were some present on that occasion who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.He answered them,“ Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered these things?