2 Reis 25

¹ And it came to pass in theThat is, of Zedekiah.ninth year of his reign, in theWhich the Hebrews call Teber, and it contains part of December and part of January.tenth month, in the tenth [day] of the month, [that] Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.

² So the citie was besieged vnto the eleueth yeere of King Zedekiah.

³ And on the ninth [day] of the [fourth] month the famineSo much that the mothers ate their children, (Lam_4:10).prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

⁴ And the city was broken up, and all the men of war [fled] by night by the way of theWhich was a back door, or some secret gate to leave by.gate between two walls, which [is] by the king's garden: (now the Chaldees [were] against the city round about:) and [the king] went the way toward the plain.

⁵ But the armie of the Caldees pursued after the King, and tooke him in the desertes of Iericho, and all his hoste was scattered from him.

⁶ So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and theyOr, condemned him for his perjury and treason, (2Ch_36:13).gave judgment upon him.

⁷ And they slew the sonnes of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bounde him in chaines, and caried him to Babel.

⁸ And in the fifth month, on theJeremiah writes in (Jer_52:12) the tenth day, because the fire continued from the seventh day to the tenth.seventh [day] of the month, which [is] the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem:

⁹ And burnt the house of the Lord, and the Kings house, and all the houses of Ierusalem, and all the great houses burnt he with fire.

¹⁰ And all the armie of the Caldees that were with the chiefe stewarde, brake downe the walles of Ierusalem round about.

¹¹ Now the rest of the people [that were] left in the city, and the fugitives thatWhile the siege endured.fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away.

¹² But the chiefe steward left of the poore of the land to dresse the vines, and to till the land.

¹³ Also the pillars of brasse that were in the house of the Lorde, and the bases, and the brasen Sea that was in the house of the Lorde, did the Caldees breake, and caried the brasse of them to Babel.

¹⁴ And theOf these read (Exo_27:3).pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away.

¹⁵ And the asshe pannes, and the basens, and all that was of gold, and that was of siluer, tooke the chiefe steward away,

¹⁶ With the two pillers, one Sea and the bases, which Salomon had made for the house of the Lorde: the brasse of all these vessels was without weight.

¹⁷ The height of the one piller was eighteene cubits, and the chapiter thereon was brasse, & the height of the chapiter was with networke three cubites, and pomegranates vpon the chapiter rounde about, all of brasse: and likewise was the second piller with the networke.

¹⁸ And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah theThat is, one appointed to act in the place of the high priest, if he were sick or otherwise detained.second priest, and the three keepers of the door:

¹⁹ And out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war, andJeremiah makes mention of seven but here he speaks of those who were the chiefest.five men of them that were in the king's presence, which were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host, which mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land [that were] found in the city:

²⁰ And Nebuzar-adan the chiefe stewarde tooke them, and brought them to the King of Babel to Riblah.

²¹ And the King of Babel smote them, & slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Iudah was caried away captiue out of his owne land.

²² Howbeit there remained people in the land of Iudah, whom Nebuchad-nezzar King of Babel left, and made Gedaliah the sonne of Ahikam the sonne of Shaphan ruler ouer them.

²³ Then when all the captaines of the host & their men heard, that the king of Babel had made Gedaliah gouernour, they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, to wit, Ishmael the sonne of Nethaniah, and Iohanan the sonne of Kareah, & Seraiah the sonne of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, & Iaazaniah the sonne of Maachathi, they and their men.

²⁴ And GedaliahThat is, he exhorted them in the Name of the Lord, according to Jeremiah's counsel, to submit themselves to Nebuchadnezzar, seeing it was the revealed will of the Lord.sware to them, and to their men, and said unto them, Fear not to be the servants of the Chaldees: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon; and it shall be well with you.

²⁵ But in the seuenth moneth Ishmael the sonne of Nethaniah the sonne of Elishama of the Kings seede, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, & he died, & so did he the Iewes, and the Caldees that were with him at Mizpah.

²⁶ And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and came toContrary to Jeremiah's counsel in Jeremiah 40-42.Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldees.

²⁷ And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity ofThis long were he, his wife and his children in Babylon, whom Nebuchadnezzar's son after his father's death preferred to honour: thus by God's providence the seed of David was preserved even to Christ.Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth [day] of the month, [that] Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;

²⁸ And spake kindly to him, & set his throne aboue the throne of the Kings that were with him in Babel,

²⁹ And changed his prison garments: and he did continually eate bread before him, all the dayes of his life.

³⁰ And hisMeaning, that he had standing in the court.allowance [was] a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.