Moff JER Chapter 52

◄ JER 52 ║ ©

52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years; 2 his mother’s name was Hamutal, a daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. He did what was evil in the sight of the Eternal, exactly as Jehoiakim had done. 3 The Eternal was so wroth that he let Jerusalem go from bad to worse, till he would have no more to do with them.

And then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4 On the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of his reign Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon attacked Jerusalem with all his army; they pitched camp, and ran a wall round it, 5 besieging the city till the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 6 By the ninth day of the fourth month (and by this time the famine in the city was so severe that the people had no food), 7 a breach was made in the walls of the city. Seeing this, the whole garrison took to flight, leaving the city during the night, by the gate beside the royal garden, between the two walls, making their way along the Arabah, as the Chaldeans had invested the city on all sides. They made for the Jordan valley. 8 However, the Chaldean army went in pursuit of the king and overtook Zedekiah in the steppes of Jericho, his own army having all scattered and left him. 9 The king was captured and carried off to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the district of Hamath, where sentence was passed upon him. 10 At Riblah the king of Babylon slew Zedekiah’s sons before their father’s eyes, and also all the authorities of Judah; 11 he then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, chained him fast, and carried him away to Babylon, where he lay in prison till the day of his death. 12 On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the commander of the bodyguard, an officer of the king of Babylon, went to Jerusalem 13 and set fire to the temple of the Eternal, as well as the royal palace and indeed all the principal buildings in the country. 14 The Chaldean troops who were with him demolished the walls of Jerusalem all round. 15 Any people left in the city, together with those who had already surrendered to the king of Babylon, and any craftsmen who were left, Nebuzaradan the commander of the body-guard carried away prisoners, 16 though he left some of the very poorest people of the land to be vine-dressers and ploughmen. 17 The bronze columns, the trolleys, and the bronze tank that were in the temple, were broken up by the Chaldeans, who took all the bronze away to Babylon; 18 they also removed the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the saucers, and any bronze article used in the temple service; 19 while the commander removed any gold and silver goblets, fire-pans, basins, pots, lampstands, saucers, and bowls. 20 (The bronze was past weighing, the bronze from the two columns, the tank, the twelve bulls supporting the tank, and the ten trolleys which king Solomon had made for the temple. 21 Each column was twenty-seven feet high, eighteen feet round, and four inches thick--hollow inside, 22 with a bronze capital on the top, seven and a half feet high, surrounded by a network and pomegranates in bronze, 23 ninety-six out of a hundred pomegranates in the network being visible.)

24 The commander of the body-guard carried off Seraiah the chief priest, Zephanlah the vice-priest, and the three wardens, 25 along with a eunuch in charge of the army, seven privy councillors who were found in the city, the secretary of the commander, who kept the army registers, and sixty country folk whom he found within the city. 26 Nebuzaradan the commander of the body-guard took them away to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 And there, at Riblah in the district of Hamath, the king of Babylon slew them all.

28 Thus was Judah carried from its land into exile. The number of prisoners carried off to exile by Nebuchadrezzar was as follows: in the seventeenth year of his reign, three thousand and twenty-three Jews; 29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, eight hundred and thirty-two from Jerusalem; 30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, seven hundred and forty-five Jews, carried captive by Nebuzaradan the commander of the body-guard; in all, four thousand six hundred.

31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiakin king of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodak king of Babylon--it was the first year of his reign--took Jehoiakin king of Judah out of prison; 32 he was civil to Jehoiakin and treated him better than his fellow-monarchs in captivity at Babylon; 33 he changed his prison dress, and Jehoiakin dined with the king every day of his life. 34 Also an allowance was made for him daily by the king of Babylon, to maintain him, as long as ever he lived.

◄ JER 52 ║ ©

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