18 Nevuzaradan exiled to Babylon the high priest Serayah, the second priest Tsefanyah, and the three temple entrance guards. 19 From the city, he took one official who was a military inspector, five of the king’s advisors, and the army commander’s secretary in charge of recruitment, plus sixty other important men. 20 Nevuzaradan took them all to the Babylonian king at Rivlah 21 in the Hamat region, but the king had them all executed there.

So the large majority of the people of Yehudah were exiled out of their country.

27 Thirty-seven years after Yehudah’s King Yehoyakin had been exiled to Babylon, Evil-Merodak had just become the new king of Babylon and he released Yehoyakin from prison on the 27th of the twelfth month. 28 He spoke kindly to Yehoyakin and honoured him more than the other kings who’d been taken to Babylon. 29 He was allowed to change out of his prison clothes, and was permitted to eat at the king’s table for the rest of his life, 30 as well as being given a daily monetary allowance.