The One Year Bible for Men - Flipbook - Page 14
July 4
of Israel had placed in the Temple. 14 King Neb
uchadnezzar took all of Jerusalem captive,
including all the commanders and the best of
the soldiers, craftsmen, and a rtisans—10,000
in all. Only the poorest people were left in
the land.
15 N ebuc hadn ezz ar led King Jeh oiac hin
away as a captive to Babylon, along with the
queen mother, his wives and officials, and all
Jerusalem’s elite. 16 He also exiled 7,000 of the
best troops and 1,000 craftsmen and artisans,
all of whom were strong and fit for war. 17 Then
the king of Babylon installed Mattaniah, Je
hoiachin’s* uncle, as the next king, and he
changed Mattaniah’s name to Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when
he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem
eleven years. His mother was Hamutal, the
daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 19 But Zed
ekiah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight,
just as Jehoiak
im had done. 20 These things
happened because of the Lord’s anger against
the people of Jerusalem and Judah, until he fi
nally banished them from his presence and
sent them into exile.
Zed
e
ki
ah rebelled against the king of
Babylon.
25:1 So
on January 15,* during the ninth year
of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylon led his entire army against Jerusa
lem. They surrounded the city and built siege
ramps against its walls. 2 Jerusalem was kept
under siege until the eleventh year of King
Zedekiah’s reign.
3 By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedeki
ah’s reign,* the famine in the city had become
very severe, and the last of the food was en
tirely gone. 4 Then a section of the city wall
was broken down. Since the city was sur
rounded by the B
abylonians,* the soldiers
waited for nightfall and escaped* through the
gate between the two walls behind the king’s
garden. Then they headed toward the Jordan
Valley.*
5 But the
Babylonian* troops chased the
king and overtook him on the plains of Jeri
cho, for his men had all deserted him and scat
tered. 6 They captured the king and took him
to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they
pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah. 7 They
made Zedek
iah watch as they slaughtered his
sons. Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes,
bound him in bronze chains, and led him away
to Babylon.
8 On August 14 of that year,* which was the
nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s
reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard
07_Jul_OY_Men.indd 592
592
and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived
in Jerusalem. 9 He burned down the Temple of
the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses
of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important
buildings* in the city. 10 Then he supervised
the entire B
abylonian army as they tore down
the walls of Jerusalem on e very side. 11 Then
Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, 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. 12 But the captain of
the guard allowed some of the poorest people
to stay behind to care for the vineyards and
fields.
13 The Babylonians broke up the bronze pil
lars 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. 14 They also took all the ash buck
ets, shovels, lamp snuffers, ladles, and all the
other bronze articles used for making sacri
fices at the Temple. 15 The captain of the guard
also took the incense burners and basins,
and all the other articles made of pure gold
or silver.
16 The 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 Sol
omon. 17 Each of the pillars was 27 feet* tall.
The bronze capital on top of each pillar was
71/2 feet* high and was decorated with a net
work of bronze pomegranates all the way
around.
18 Nebuzaradan, 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 g atekeepers. 19 And
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 secre
tary, who was in charge of recruitment; and
sixty other citizens. 20 Nebuzaradan, the cap
tain of the guard, took them all to the king of
Babylon at Riblah. 21 And 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.
22 Then King Nebuchadnezzar appointed
Gedaliah son of Ahikam and grandson of
Shaphan as governor over the people he had
left in Judah. 23 When all the army command
ers and their men learned that the king of
Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as gover
nor, they went to see him at Mizpah. These
included Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan
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