1So on January 15, Hebrew on the tenth day of the tenth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. A number of events in 2 Kings can be cross-checked with dates in surviving Babylonian records and related accurately to our modern calendar. This day was January 15, 588 B.C. during the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its walls.
2Jerusalem was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah’s reign.
3By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, Hebrew By the ninth day of the [fourth] month [in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign] (compare Jer 52:6 and the note there). This day was July 18, 586 B.C.; also see note on 25:1. the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone.
4Then a section of the city wall was broken down, and all the soldiers fled. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians, Or the Chaldeans; also in 25:13, 25, 26. they waited for nightfall. Then they slipped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley. Hebrew the Arabah.
5But the Babylonian Or Chaldean; also in 25:10, 24. troops chased the king and caught him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered.
6They took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah.
7They made Zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons. Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon.
The Temple Destroyed
8On August 14 of that year, Hebrew On the seventh day of the fifth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was August 14, 586 B.C.; also see note on 25:1. which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem.
9He burned down the Temple of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings Or destroyed the houses of all the important people. in the city.
10Then he supervised the entire Babylonian army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side.
11Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, then took as exiles the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population.
12But the captain of the guard allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind in Judah to care for the vineyards and fields.
13The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars in front of the LORD’s Temple, the bronze water carts, and the great bronze basin called the Sea, and they carried all the bronze away to Babylon.
14They also took all the ash buckets, shovels, lamp snuffers, dishes, and all the other bronze articles used for making sacrifices at the Temple.
15Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, also took the incense burners and basins, and all the other articles made of pure gold or silver.
16The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the Sea, and the water carts was too great to be measured. These things had been made for the LORD’s Temple in the days of King Solomon.
17Each of the pillars was 27 feet Hebrew 18 cubits [8.1 meters]. tall. The bronze capital on top of each pillar was 7½ feet As in parallel texts at 1 Kgs 7:16, 2 Chr 3:15, and Jer 52:22, all of which read 5 cubits [2.3 meters]; Hebrew reads 3 cubits, which is 4.5 feet or 1.4 meters. high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around.
18Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took with him as prisoners Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three chief gatekeepers.
19And from among the people still hiding in the city, he took an officer who had been in charge of the Judean army; five of the king’s personal advisers; the army commander’s chief secretary, who was in charge of recruitment; and sixty other citizens.
20Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them all to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
21And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them all put to death. So the people of Judah were sent into exile from their land.
Gedaliah Governs in Judah
22Then King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan as governor over the people he had left in Judah.
23When all the army commanders and their men learned that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they went to see him at Mizpah. These included Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jezaniah As in parallel text at Jer 40:8; Hebrew reads Jaazaniah, a variant spelling of Jezaniah. son of the Maacathite, and all their men.
24Gedaliah vowed to them that the Babylonian officials meant them no harm. “Don’t be afraid of them. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and all will go well for you,” he promised.
25But in midautumn of that year, Hebrew in the seventh month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This month occurred within the months of October and November 586 B.C.; also see note on 25:1. Ishmael son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, who was of the royal family, went to Mizpah with ten men and killed Gedaliah. He also killed all the Judeans and Babylonians who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah.
26Then all the people of Judah, from the least to the greatest, as well as the army commanders, fled in panic to Egypt, for they were afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them.
Hope for Israel’s Royal Line
27In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, Evil-merodach ascended to the Babylonian throne. He was kind to Hebrew He raised the head of. Jehoiachin and released him from prison on April 2 of that year. Hebrew on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was April 2, 561 B.C.; also see note on 25:1.
28He spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a higher place than all the other exiled kings in Babylon.
29He supplied Jehoiachin with new clothes to replace his prison garb and allowed him to dine in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.
30So the Babylonian king gave him a regular food allowance as long as he lived.
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