^36 (A)Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah from the town of Rumah. ³⁷ Following the example of his ancestors, Jehoiakim sinned against the Lord.

24 ^(B)While Jehoiakim was king, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia invaded Judah, and for three years Jehoiakim was forced to submit to his rule; then he rebelled. ² The Lord sent armed bands of Babylonians, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites against Jehoiakim to destroy Judah, as the Lord had said through his servants the prophets that he would do. ³ This happened at the Lord's command, in order to banish the people of Judah from his sight because of all the sins that King Manasseh had committed, ⁴ and especially because of all the innocent people he had killed. The Lord could not forgive Manasseh for that.

⁵ Everything that Jehoiakim did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ⁶ Jehoiakim died, and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

⁷ The king of Egypt and his army never marched out of Egypt again, because the king of Babylonia now controlled all the territory that had belonged to Egypt, from the Euphrates River to the northern border of Egypt.

King Jehoiakim of Judah^(A)

^5 (B)Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. He sinned against the Lord his God. ^6 (C)King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia invaded Judah, captured Jehoiakim, and took him to Babylonia in chains. ⁷ Nebuchadnezzar carried off some of the treasures of the Temple and put them in his palace in Babylon. ⁸ Everything that Jehoiakim did, including his disgusting practices and the evil he committed, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

^3 (A)and he spoke to him again when Josiah's son Jehoiakim was king. After that, the Lord spoke to him many times, until the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah. In the fifth month of that year the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile.

King Zedekiah of Judah^(A)

^18 (B)Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from the city of Libnah. ¹⁹ King Zedekiah sinned against the Lord, just as King Jehoiakim had done. ^20 (C)The Lord became so angry with the people of Jerusalem and Judah that he banished them from his sight.

The Fall of Jerusalem^(D)

25 ^(E)Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, and so Nebuchadnezzar came with all his army and attacked Jerusalem on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign. They set up camp outside the city, built siege walls around it, ² and kept it under siege until Zedekiah's eleventh year. ³ On the ninth day of the fourth month^[a] of that same year, when the famine was so bad that the people had nothing left to eat, ^4 (F)the city walls were broken through. Although the Babylonians were surrounding the city, all the soldiers escaped during the night. They left by way of the royal garden, went through the gateway connecting the two walls, and fled in the direction of the Jordan Valley. ⁵ But the Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah, captured him in the plains near Jericho, and all his soldiers deserted him. ⁶ Zedekiah was taken to King Nebuchadnezzar, who was in the city of Riblah, and there Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him. ^7 (G)While Zedekiah was looking on, his sons were put to death; then Nebuchadnezzar had Zedekiah's eyes put out, placed him in chains, and took him to Babylon.

The Destruction of the Temple^(H)

⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month of the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, Nebuzaradan, adviser to the king and commander of his army, entered Jerusalem. ^9 (I)He burned down the Temple, the palace, and the houses of all the important people in Jerusalem, ¹⁰ and his soldiers tore down the city walls. ¹¹ Then Nebuzaradan took away to Babylonia the people who were left in the city, the remaining skilled workers,^[b] and those who had deserted to the Babylonians. ¹² But he left in Judah some of the poorest people, who owned no property, and put them to work in the vineyards and fields.

^13 (J)The Babylonians broke in pieces the bronze columns and the carts that were in the Temple, together with the large bronze tank, and they took all the bronze to Babylon. ^14 (K)They also took away the shovels and the ash containers used in cleaning the altar, the tools used in tending the lamps, the bowls used for catching the blood from the sacrifices, the bowls used for burning incense, and all the other bronze articles used in the Temple service. ¹⁵ They took away everything that was made of gold or silver, including the small bowls and the pans used for carrying live coals. ¹⁶ The bronze objects that King Solomon had made for the Temple—the two columns, the carts, and the large tank—were too heavy to weigh. ¹⁷ The two columns were identical: each one was 27 feet high, with a bronze capital on top, 4½ feet high. All around each capital was a bronze grillwork decorated with pomegranates made of bronze.

The People of Judah Are Taken to Babylonia^(L)

¹⁸ In addition, Nebuzaradan, the commanding officer, took away as prisoners Seraiah the High Priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three other important Temple officials. ¹⁹ From the city he took the officer who had been in command of the troops, five of the king's personal advisers who were still in the city, the commander's assistant, who was in charge of military records, and sixty other important men. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan took them to the king of Babylonia, who was in the city of Riblah ²¹ in the territory of Hamath. There the king had them beaten and put to death.

So the people of Judah were carried away from their land into exile.

King Zedekiah of Judah^(A)

^11 (B)Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. ¹² He sinned against the Lord and did not listen humbly to the prophet Jeremiah, who spoke the word of the Lord.

The Fall of Jerusalem^(C)

^13 (D)Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had forced him to swear in God's name that he would be loyal. He stubbornly refused to repent and return to the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁴ In addition, the leaders of Judah, the priests, and the people followed the sinful example of the nations around them in worshiping idols, and so they defiled the Temple, which the Lord himself had made holy. ¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their ancestors, had continued to send prophets to warn his people, because he wanted to spare them and the Temple. ¹⁶ But they made fun of God's messengers, ignoring his words and laughing at his prophets, until at last the Lord's anger against his people was so great that there was no escape.

^17 (E)So the Lord brought the king of Babylonia to attack them. The king killed the young men of Judah even in the Temple. He had no mercy on anyone, young or old, man or woman, sick or healthy. God handed them all over to him. ¹⁸ The king of Babylonia looted the Temple, the Temple treasury, and the wealth of the king and his officials, and took everything back to Babylon. ^19 (F)He burned down the Temple and the city, with all its palaces and its wealth, and broke down the city wall. ²⁰ He took all the survivors to Babylonia, where they served him and his descendants as slaves until the rise of the Persian Empire. ^21 (G)And so what the Lord had foretold through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “The land will lie desolate for seventy years, to make up for the Sabbath rest^[a] that has not been observed.”