Jeremiah 49-52

Holman Christian Standard Bible

Prophecies against Ammon

49 About the Ammonites,^(A) this is what the Lord says:

Does Israel have no sons?
Is he without an heir?
Why then has Milcom^[a]^[b] dispossessed Gad^(B)
and his people settled in their cities?
²Therefore look, the days are coming—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
when I will make the shout of battle^(C) heard
against Rabbah of the Ammonites.
It will become a desolate mound,
and its villages will be burned down.
Israel will dispossess their dispossessors,
says the Lord.
³Wail, Heshbon,^(D) for Ai is devastated;
cry out, daughters of Rabbah!
Clothe yourselves with sackcloth,^(E) and lament;
run back and forth within your walls,^[c]
because Milcom will go into exile
together with his priests and officials.^(F)
⁴Why do you brag about your valleys,
your flowing valley,^[d]
you faithless daughter?
You who trust in your treasures
and boast, “Who can attack me?”
⁵Look, I am about to bring terror on you^(G)—
this is the declaration of
the Lord God of Hosts—
from all those around you.
You will be banished, each man headlong,
with no one to gather up the fugitives.
⁶But after that, I will restore the fortunes^[e] of the Ammonites.^(H)
This is the Lord’s declaration.

Prophecies against Edom

⁷About Edom, this is what the Lord of Hosts says:

Is there no longer wisdom in Teman?^[f]
Has counsel perished from the prudent?
Has their wisdom rotted away?^(I)
⁸Run! Turn back! Lie low,
residents of Dedan,^(J)
for I will bring Esau’s calamity on him
at the time I punish him.^(K)
⁹If grape harvesters came to you,
wouldn’t they leave some gleanings?^(L)
Were thieves to come in the night,
they would destroy only what they wanted.^(M)
¹⁰But I will strip Esau bare;
I will uncover his secret places.^(N)
He will try to hide himself, but he will be unable.
His descendants will be destroyed
along with his relatives and neighbors.
He will exist no longer.
¹¹Abandon your fatherless; I will preserve them;
let your widows trust in Me.^(O)

¹²“For this is what the Lord says: If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not remain unpunished, for you must drink it too. ¹³For by Myself I have sworn”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“Bozrah^[g] will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and a curse, and all her cities will become ruins forever.”^(P)

¹⁴I have heard a message from the Lord;
a messenger has been sent among the nations:
Assemble yourselves to come against her.
Rise up for war!

¹⁵Look, I will certainly make you insignificant among the nations,
despised among humanity.
¹⁶As to the terror you cause,^[h]
your presumptuous heart has deceived you.
You who live in the clefts of the rock,^[i]
you who occupy the mountain summit,
though you elevate your nest like the eagle,
even from there I will bring you down.
This is the Lord’s declaration.^(Q)

¹⁷“Edom will become a desolation. Everyone who passes by her will be horrified and scoff because of all her wounds.^(R) ¹⁸As when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,”^(S) says the Lord, “no one will live there; no human being will even stay in it as a temporary resident.^(T)

¹⁹“Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets^[j] of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. Indeed, I will chase Edom away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like Me? Who will summon Me?^(U) Who is the shepherd who can stand against Me?”

²⁰Therefore, hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Edom and the strategies He has devised against the people of Teman:^(V) The flock’s little lambs will certainly be dragged away,^(W) and their grazing land will be made desolate because of them. ²¹At the sound of their fall the earth will quake; the sound of her cry will be heard at the Red Sea.^(X) ²²Look! It will be like an eagle soaring upward, then swooping down and spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman with contractions.^(Y)

Prophecies against Damascus

²³About Damascus:^(Z)

Hamath and Arpad are put to shame,^(AA)
for they have heard a bad report and are agitated;
in the sea there is anxiety that cannot be calmed.
²⁴Damascus has become weak;
she has turned to run;
panic has gripped her.
Distress and labor pains have seized her
like a woman in labor.
²⁵How can the city of praise not be abandoned,^(AB)
the town that brings Me joy?
²⁶Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.
This is the declaration of
the Lord of Hosts.^(AC)
²⁷I will set fire to the wall of Damascus;
it will consume Ben-hadad’s citadels.^(AD)

Prophecies against Kedar and Hazor

²⁸About Kedar^(AE) and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar,^(AF) Babylon’s king, defeated, this is what the Lord says:

Rise up, go against Kedar,
and destroy the people of the east!
²⁹They will take their tents and their flocks
along with their tent curtains and all their equipment.
They will take their camels for themselves.
They will call out to them:
Terror is on every side!^(AG)
³⁰Run! Escape quickly! Lie low,
residents of Hazor—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
has drawn up a plan against you;
he has devised a strategy against you.

³¹Rise up, go up against a nation at ease,
one living in security.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
They have no doors, not even a gate bar;
they live alone.^(AH)
³²Their camels will become plunder,
and their massive herds of cattle will become spoil.^(AI)
I will scatter them to the wind in every direction,
those who shave their temples;
I will bring calamity on them across all their borders.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
³³Hazor will become a jackals’ den,^(AJ)
a desolation forever.
No one will live there;
no human being will even stay in it as a temporary resident.^(AK)

Prophecies against Elam

³⁴This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet about Elam^[k] at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.^(AL) ³⁵This is what the Lord of Hosts says:

I am about to shatter Elam’s bow,^(AM)
the source^[l] of their might.
³⁶I will bring the four winds against Elam
from the four corners of the heavens,
and I will scatter them to all these winds.
There will not be a nation
to which Elam’s banished ones will not go.
³⁷I will devastate Elam before their enemies,
before those who want to take their lives.
I will bring disaster on them,
My burning anger.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
I will send the sword after them^(AN)
until I finish them off.
³⁸I will set My throne in Elam,
and I will destroy the king and officials from there.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

³⁹In the last days,
I will restore the fortunes^[m] of Elam.^(AO)
This is the Lord’s declaration.

Prophecies against Babylon

50 The word the Lord spoke about Babylon,^(AP) the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:

²Announce to the nations;
proclaim and raise up a signal flag;^(AQ)
proclaim, and hide nothing.
Say: Babylon is captured;
Bel^(AR) is put to shame;
Marduk is devastated;
her idols are put to shame;
her false gods, devastated.
³For a nation from the north will come against her;^(AS)
it will make her land desolate.
No one will be living in it—
both man and beast will escape.^[n]
⁴In those days and at that time—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
the Israelites and Judeans will come together,
weeping as they come,
and will seek the Lord their God.^(AT)
⁵They will ask about Zion,
turning their faces to this road.
They will come and join themselves^[o] to the Lord
in an everlasting covenant^(AU) that will never be forgotten.

⁶My people are lost sheep;^(AV)
their shepherds have led them astray,
guiding them the wrong way in the mountains.^(AW)
They have wandered from mountain to hill;
they have forgotten their resting place.
⁷All who found them devoured them.
Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty;
instead, they have sinned against the Lord,
their righteous grazing land,^(AX)
the hope of their ancestors,^(AY) the Lord.”

⁸Escape from Babylon;^(AZ)
depart from the Chaldeans’ land.
Be like the rams that lead the flock.
⁹For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon
an assembly of great nations from the north country.
They will line up in battle formation against her;
from there she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like those of a skilled^[p] warrior
who does not return empty-handed.
¹⁰The Chaldeans will become plunder;
all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
¹¹Because you rejoice,
because you sing in triumph—
you who plundered My inheritance—
because you frolic like a young cow treading grain
and neigh like stallions,^(BA)
¹²your mother will be utterly humiliated;
she who bore you will be put to shame.
Look! She will lag behind all^[q] the nations—
a dry land, a wilderness,^(BB) an Arabah.
¹³Because of the Lord’s wrath,
she will not be inhabited;
she will become a desolation, every bit of her.
Everyone who passes through Babylon
will be horrified
and scoff because of all her wounds.^(BC)
¹⁴Line up in battle formation around Babylon,
all you archers!
Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow,
for she has sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵Raise a war cry against her on every side!
She has thrown up her hands in surrender;
her defense towers have fallen;
her walls are demolished.^(BD)
Since this is the Lord’s vengeance,^(BE)
take out your vengeance on her;
as she has done, do the same to her.
¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon
as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time.
Because of the oppressor’s sword,^(BF)
each will turn to his own people,^(BG)
each will flee to his own land.

The Return of God’s People

¹⁷Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions.^(BH)
The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria;
the last one who crushed his bones
was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.^(BI)

¹⁸Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to punish the king of Babylon^(BJ) and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹I will return Israel to his grazing land,
and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan;
he will be satisfied
in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.^(BK)
²⁰In those days and at that time—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
one will search for Israel’s guilt,
but there will be none,
and for Judah’s sins,
but they will not be found,
for I will forgive^(BL) those I leave as a remnant.^(BM)

The Invasion of Babylon

²¹“Go against the land of Merathaim,
and against those living in Pekod.
Put them to the sword;
completely destroy them—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
do everything I have commanded you.^(BN)
²²The sound of war is in the land^(BO)—
a great destruction.
²³How the hammer of the whole earth
is cut down and smashed!
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!^(BP)
²⁴Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught,^(BQ)
but you did not even know it.
You were found and captured
because you fought against the Lord.
²⁵The Lord opened His armory
and brought out His weapons of wrath,^(BR)
because it is a task of the Lord God of Hosts
in the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶Come against her from the most distant places.^[r]
Open her granaries;
pile her up like mounds of grain
and completely destroy her.
Leave her no survivors.
²⁷Put all her young bulls to the sword;
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, because their day has come,
the time of their punishment.^(BS)

The Humiliation of Babylon

²⁸“There is a voice of fugitives and those who escape
from the land of Babylon
announcing in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
the vengeance for His temple.^(BT)
²⁹Summon the archers to Babylon,
all who string the bow;
camp all around her; let none escape.
Repay her according to her deeds;^(BU)
just as she has done, do the same to her,
for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord,
against the Holy One of Israel.^(BV)
³⁰Therefore, her young men will fall
in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.
This is the Lord’s declaration.^(BW)
³¹Look, I am against you, you arrogant one—
this is the declaration of
the Lord God of Hosts—
because your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.
³²The arrogant will stumble and fall
with no one to pick him up.
I will set fire to his cities,
and it will consume everything around him.”^(BX)

The Desolation of Babylon

³³This is what the Lord of Hosts says:

Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed.
All their captors hold them fast;^(BY)
they refuse to release them.
³⁴Their Redeemer is strong;
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.
He will fervently plead their case^(BZ)
so that He might bring rest to the earth
but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.^(CA)
³⁵A sword is over the Chaldeans—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
against those who live in Babylon,
against her officials, and against her sages.
³⁶A sword is against the diviners,
and they will act foolishly.
A sword is against her heroic warriors,
and they will be terrified.
³⁷A sword is against his horses and chariots
and against all the foreigners among them,^(CB)
and they will be like women.^(CC)
A sword is against her treasuries,
and they will be plundered.
³⁸A drought will come on her waters,
and they will be dried up.
For it is a land of carved images,
and they go mad because of terrifying things.^[s]^(CD)

³⁹Therefore, desert creatures^[t] will live with hyenas,
and ostriches will also live in her.
It will never again be inhabited
or lived in through all generations.^(CE)
⁴⁰Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah
and their neighboring towns^(CF)—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
so no one will live there;
no human being will even stay in it
as a temporary resident.^(CG)

The Conquest of Babylon

⁴¹Look! A people comes from the north.
A great nation and many kings will be stirred up
from the remote regions of the earth.^(CH)
⁴²They grasp bow and javelin.
They are cruel and show no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea,^(CI)
and they ride on horses,
lined up like men in battle formation
against you, Daughter Babylon.
⁴³The king of Babylon has heard reports about them,
and his hands fall helpless.
Distress has seized him—
pain, like a woman in labor.^(CJ)

⁴⁴“Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets^[u]^(CK) of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. Indeed, I will chase Babylon^[v] away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like Me? Who will summon Me? Who is the shepherd who can stand against Me?”

⁴⁵Therefore, hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Certainly the flock’s little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them. ⁴⁶At the sound of Babylon’s conquest the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.^(CL)

God’s Judgment on Babylon

51 This is what the Lord says:

I am about to stir up a destructive wind^[w] against Babylon^(CM)
and against the population of Leb-qamai.^[x]^[y]
²I will send strangers to Babylon
who will scatter her and strip her land bare,^(CN)
for they will come against her
from every side in the day of disaster.
³Don’t let the archer string his bow;
don’t let him put on^[z] his armor.^(CO)
Don’t spare her young men;
completely destroy her entire army!
⁴Those who were slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
those who were pierced through, in her streets.^(CP)
⁵For Israel and Judah are not left widowed
by their God, the Lord of Hosts,
though their land is full of guilt
against the Holy One of Israel.^(CQ)

⁶Leave Babylon;^(CR)
save your lives, each of you!^(CS)
Don’t perish because of her guilt.
For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance—
He will pay her what she deserves.^(CT)
⁷Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand,^(CU)
making the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;^(CV)
therefore, the nations go mad.^(CW)
⁸Suddenly Babylon fell and was shattered.
Wail for her;
get balm^(CX) for her wound—
perhaps she can be healed.

⁹We tried to heal Babylon,
but she could not be healed.
Abandon her!
Let each of us go to his own land,^(CY)
for her judgment extends to the sky
and reaches as far as the clouds.^(CZ)

¹⁰The Lord has brought about our vindication;^(DA)
come, let’s tell in Zion
what the Lord our God has accomplished.^(DB)

¹¹Sharpen the arrows!
Fill the quivers!
The Lord has put it into the mind
of the kings of the Medes
because His plan is aimed at Babylon
to destroy her,
for it is the Lord’s vengeance,
vengeance for His temple.^(DC)
¹²Raise up a signal flag^(DD)
against the walls of Babylon;
fortify the watch post;
set the watchmen in place;
prepare the ambush.
For the Lord has both planned and accomplished
what He has threatened
against those who live in Babylon.
¹³You who reside by many waters,^(DE)
rich in treasures,
your end has come,
your life thread is cut.

¹⁴The Lord of Hosts has sworn by Himself:

I will fill you up with men as with locusts,
and they will sing the victory song over you.

¹⁵He made the earth by His power,
established the world^(DF) by His wisdom,^(DG)
and spread out the heavens by His understanding.^(DH)
¹⁶When He thunders,^[aa]
the waters in the heavens are in turmoil,^(DI)
and He causes the clouds
to rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
and brings the wind from His storehouses.^(DJ)

¹⁷Everyone is stupid and ignorant.
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image,^(DK)
for his cast images are a lie;^(DL)
there is no breath in them.^(DM)
¹⁸They are worthless,^(DN) a work to be mocked.
At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.^(DO)
¹⁹Jacob’s Portion^[ab] is not like these
because He is the One who formed all things.^(DP)
Israel is the tribe of His inheritance;^(DQ)
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.^(DR)

²⁰You are My battle club,
My weapons of war.
With you I will smash nations;
with you I will bring kingdoms to ruin.
²¹With you I will smash the horse and its rider;
with you I will smash the chariot and its rider.
²²With you I will smash man and woman;^(DS)
with you I will smash the old man and the youth;
with you I will smash the young man and the young woman.
²³With you I will smash the shepherd and his flock;
with you I will smash the farmer and his ox-team.^[ac]
With you I will smash governors and officials.

²⁴“I will repay Babylon and all the residents of Chaldea for all their evil they have done in Zion before your very eyes.”^(DT)

This is the Lord’s declaration.

²⁵Look, I am against you, devastating mountain—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
you devastate the whole earth.
I will stretch out My hand against you,^(DU)
roll you down from the cliffs,
and turn you into a charred mountain.
²⁶No one will be able to retrieve a cornerstone
or a foundation stone from you,
because you will become desolate forever.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

²⁷Raise a signal flag^(DV) in the land;
blow a ram’s horn among the nations;
set apart the nations against her.^(DW)
Summon kingdoms against her—
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a marshal against her;
bring up horses like a swarm^[ad] of locusts.
²⁸Set apart the nations for battle against her—
the kings of Media,
her governors and all her officials,
and all the lands they rule.
²⁹The earth quakes^(DX) and trembles
because the Lord’s intentions against Babylon stand:
to make the land of Babylon an uninhabited desolation.
³⁰Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting;^(DY)
they sit in their strongholds.
Their might is exhausted;
they have become like women.
Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze,
her gate bars are shattered.^(DZ)
³¹Messenger races to meet messenger,^(EA)
and herald to meet herald,
to announce to the king of Babylon
that his city has been captured
from end to end.
³²The fords have been seized,^(EB)
the marshes set on fire,
and the soldiers are terrified.

³³For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:

Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time it is trampled.^(EC)
In just a little while her harvest time will come.^(ED)

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me;
he has crushed me.
He has set me aside like an empty dish;
he has swallowed me like a sea monster;^(EE)
he filled his belly with my delicacies;
he has vomited me out,”^[ae]
³⁵says the inhabitant of Zion;
“Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon.
Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
says Jerusalem.

³⁶Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

I am about to plead your case^(EF)
and take vengeance on your behalf;
I will dry up her sea^(EG)
and make her fountain run dry.
³⁷Babylon will become a heap of rubble,
a jackals’ den,
a desolation and an object of scorn,^(EH)
without inhabitant.
³⁸They will roar together like young lions;
they will growl like lion cubs.
³⁹While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast,
and I will make them drunk so that they revel.^[af]^(EI)
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams together with male goats.^(EJ)

⁴¹How Sheshach has been captured,
the praise^(EK) of the whole earth seized.
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!^(EL)
⁴²The sea has risen over Babylon;^(EM)
she is covered with its turbulent waves.
⁴³Her cities have become a desolation,^(EN)
a dry and arid land,
a land where no one lives,
where no human being passes through.
⁴⁴I will punish Bel^(EO) in Babylon.
I will make him vomit what he swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him;
even Babylon’s wall will fall.

⁴⁵Come out from among her, My people!^(EP)
Save your lives, each of you,
from the Lord’s burning anger.
⁴⁶May you not become cowardly and fearful
when the report is proclaimed in the land,
for the report will come one year,
and then another the next year.
There will be violence in the land
with ruler against ruler.
⁴⁷Therefore, look, the days are coming
when I will punish Babylon’s carved images.^(EQ)
Her entire land will suffer shame,
and all her slain will lie fallen within her.^(ER)
⁴⁸Heaven and earth and everything in them
will shout for joy^(ES) over Babylon
because the destroyers from the north
will come against her.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

⁴⁹Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel,
even as the slain of all the earth fell
because of Babylon.
⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword,^(ET)
go and do not stand still!
Remember the Lord from far away,
and let Jerusalem come to your mind.

⁵¹We are ashamed
because we have heard insults.^(EU)
Humiliation covers our faces
because foreigners have entered
the holy places of the Lord’s temple.^(EV)

⁵²Therefore, look, the days are coming—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
when I will punish her carved images,
and the wounded will groan
throughout her land.
⁵³Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens^(EW)
and fortify her tall fortresses,
destroyers will come against her from Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

⁵⁴The sound of a cry from Babylon!^(EX)
The sound of great destruction
from the land of the Chaldeans!
⁵⁵For the Lord is going to devastate Babylon;
He will silence her mighty voice.
Their waves roar like abundant waters;
the tumult of their voice resounds,
⁵⁶for a destroyer is coming against her,
against Babylon.
Her warriors will be captured,
their bows shattered,
for the Lord is a God of retribution;
He will certainly repay.
⁵⁷I will make her princes and sages drunk,
along with her governors, officials, and warriors.
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.^(EY)
This is the King’s declaration;
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.^(EZ)

⁵⁸This is what Yahweh of Hosts says:

Babylon’s thick walls will be totally demolished,
and her high gates consumed by fire.
The peoples will have labored for nothing;^(FA)
the nations will exhaust themselves only to feed the fire.

⁵⁹This is what Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah,^(FB) the quartermaster, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. ⁶⁰Jeremiah wrote on one scroll about all the disaster that would come to Babylon;^(FC) all these words were written against Babylon.

⁶¹Jeremiah told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. ⁶²You must say, ‘Lord, You have threatened to cut off^(FD) this place so that no one will live in it—man or beast. Indeed, it will remain desolate forever.’ ⁶³When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.^(FE) ⁶⁴Then say, ‘In the same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am bringing on her. They will grow weary.’”

The words of Jeremiah end here.

The Fall of Jerusalem

52 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. ²Zedekiah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight just as Jehoiakim had done.^(FF) ³Because of the Lord’s anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that He finally banished them from His presence. Nevertheless, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.^(FG)

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 all around it. 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 people of the land had no food. ⁷Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city by night by way of the 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.^(FH) ⁸The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army was scattered from him. 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 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 custody^[ag] until his dying day.^(FI)

¹²On the tenth day of the fifth month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of^[ah] the king of Babylon. ¹³He burned the Lord’s temple, the king’s palace, all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the nobles. ¹⁴The whole Chaldean army with the commander of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.^(FJ) ¹⁵Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported some of the poorest of the people, as well as the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. ¹⁶But some of the poorest people of the land Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, left to be vinedressers and farmers.^(FK)

¹⁷Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars for the Lord’s temple and the water carts and the bronze reservoir that were in the Lord’s temple,^(FL) and carried all the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸They took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. ¹⁹The commander of the guards took away the bowls, firepans, sprinkling basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and drink offering bowls^(FM)—whatever was gold or silver.

²⁰As for the two pillars, the one reservoir, and the 12 bronze bulls 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 feet^[ai] tall, had a circumference of 18 feet,^[aj] was hollow—four fingers thick— ²²and had a bronze capital on top of it.^(FN) One capital, encircled by bronze latticework and pomegranates, stood 7½ feet^[ak] high. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates. ²³Each capital had 96 pomegranates all around it. All the pomegranates around the latticework numbered 100.

²⁴The commander 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 official who had been appointed over the warriors; seven trusted royal aides^[al] found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and 60 men from the common people who were found within the city. ²⁶Nebuzaradan, the commander 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.^(FO)

²⁸These are the people Nebuchadnezzar deported:^(FP) in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; ²⁹in his eighteenth year,^[am] 832 people from Jerusalem; ³⁰in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported 745 Jews. All together 4,600 people were deported.

Jehoiachin Pardoned

³¹On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison. ³²He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and he dined regularly in the presence of the king of Babylon for the rest of his life. ³⁴As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, for the rest of his life.^(FQ)