24 The commander of the bodyguards took the high priest Serayah prisoner, along with the second-level priest Tsefanyah, and the three gatekeepers. 25 From the city, he took an army commander prisoner, as well as seven of the king’s advisers who were still in the city. He also took prisoner the king’s army recruitment officer, along with sixty important men from the country who were in the city. 26 Then Nevu-Zaradan, the commander of the bodyguards, took them to the Babylonian king at Rivlah, 27 and the king put them to death there at Rivlah in the Hamat region.

So Yehudah’s people were taken out of their country and into exile. 28 These were the people who Nebuchadnezzar exiled:

• In Nebuchadnezzar’s seventh year, 3,023 Judeans.
• 29 In his eighteenth year, he took 832 people from Yerushalem.
• 30 In his twenty-third year, Nevu-Zaradan, the commander of the king’s bodyguards, exiled 745 Judean people.

All those exiles totalled 4,600 people.

31 Some time later on the 25th of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Yehudah’s King Yehoyakin (Jehoiachin), Babylon’s King Eveel-Merodak (in the first year of his reign) released King Yehoyakin from prison. 32 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat more honourable than that of the other exiled kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 Eveel-Merodak supplied new clothes for Yehoyakin to wear, and he ate regularly at the king’s table for the rest of his life. 34 He was also given a daily allowance by the king for the rest of his life.

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.