OET-RV 2 CHR Chapter 36

36 Then the people of Yehudah (Judah) took Yoshiyah’s (Josiah) son Yehoahaz and made him king in Yerushalem (Jerusalem) to replace his father. 2 Yehoahaz was twenty-three when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for only three months. 3 Then Mitsrayim’s (Egypt) king deposed him and forced the country to pay an annual tribute of thirty kilograms of gold and three tonnes of silver. 4 ⇔Mitsrayim’s King Nekoh took Yehoahaz to Mitsrayim,[ref] and then the king made his younger brother Elyakim king over Yehudah and Yerushalem, although he changed Elyakim’s name to Yehoyakim.

5 Yehoyakim was twenty-five when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem (Jerusalem) for eleven years. He did many things that Yahweh had said were evil.[ref] 6 Bavel’s (Babylon) King Nevukadnetsar (Nebuchadnezzar) attacked and captured Yehoyakim and took him to Bavel in bronze chains,[ref] 7 along with some items from Yahweh’s temple that were taken to Bavel and placed in the king’s temple there.

8 The record of all the other things Yehoyakim did while he was king, including the disgusting things he did, was written on the scroll ‘The kings of Yisrael (Israel) and Yehudah’ (Judah), and his son Yehoyakin replaced him as king.

9 Yehoyakin was eighteen[fn] when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem (Jerusalem) for just ten days. He did many things that Yahweh had said were evil. 10 At the beginning of the next year, King Nevukadnetsar (Nebuchadnezzar) sent soldiers to bring him to Bavel (Babylon), bringing valuable items from the temple,[ref] and he made his younger brother Tsidkiyah (Zedekiah) king over Yehudah (Judah) and Yerushalem.[ref]

11 Tsidkiyah (Zedekiah) was twenty-one when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem (Jerusalem) for eleven years.[ref] 12 He did many things that Yahweh had said were evil, in fact, he didn’t even humble himself when the prophet Yirmiyah (Jeremiah) brought him a message from Yahweh. 13 ⇔He’d become very stubborn and wouldn’t return to Yisrael’s (Israel) god Yahweh, and he also rebelled against King Nevukadnetsar (Nebuchadnezzar), who’d made him promise in front of God to be loyal.[ref] 14 In addition, all the leaders of the priests and the people of Yehudah (Judah) became more and more unfaithful, doing disgusting things often done in other nations, and then they defiled Yahweh’s residence, which he’d consecrated in Yerushalem.

15 So Yahweh, their ancestors’ god, sent many messages via his prophets, because he felt compassion for his people and his residence, 16 but they mocked God’s messengers and rejected the messages—ridiculing his prophets until Yahweh became so angry that he couldn’t be stopped. 17 So Yahweh sent the Chaldean king against them, and the Kasdim (Chaldeans) ran Yehudah’s young men through with the sword, even in the temple, and they didn’t spare any of the young men or women, or even those who were older or elderly—God allowed Nevukadnetsar to thoroughly defeat them.[ref] 18 Then he took everything valuable, big or small, from God’s temple, as well as from the king and his officials. 19 They set God’s temple on fire,[ref] and tore down some of the wall surrounding Yerushalem, burnt all its palaces, and destroyed everything valuable. 20 Anyone else who was still alive was taken to Bavel (Babylon), where they became servants to the king and his children until the time when the Persians came to power. 21 That fulfilled God’s message that Yirmiyah (Jeremiah) had previously proclaimed, that the land would become desolate to make up for the Rest Days that had been ignored—that took seventy years.[ref]

22 During the first year that King Koresh (Cyrus) reigned over Paras (Persia), in order to further fulfil what Yahweh had said via the prophet Yirmiyah (Jeremiah), Yahweh worked on the spirit of King Koresh who then wrote this ruling and sent messengers to announce it throughout his kingdom: 23 “I, Paras’s King Koresh, declare that Yahweh, the god of the heavens, has given me all these earthly kingdoms, and he’s given me the job of building a house for him in Yerushalem (Jerusalem), which is in Yehudah (Judah).[ref] To help with that, anyone who’s from there is allowed to return, and may their god Yahweh be with them and help them.