2 Kings 25
24:20 What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the
Nebuchadnezzar Destroys Jerusalem
25:8 On the seventh15 day of the fifth month,16 in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard17 who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.18
25:9 He burned down the
25:13 The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the
25:18 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah, the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. 25:19 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five30 of the king’s advisers31 who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens32 for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city. 25:20 Nebuzaradan, captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 25:21 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed33 at Riblah in the territory34 of Hamath. So Judah was deported from its land.
Gedaliah Appointed Governor
25:22 Now King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, as governor over the people whom he allowed to remain in the land of Judah.35 25:23 All of the officers of the Judahite army36 and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah to govern. So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers who came were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite. 25:24 Gedaliah took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety.37 He said, “You don’t need to be afraid to submit to the Babylonian officials. Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.” 25:25 But in the seventh month38 Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family,39 came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah,40 as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah. 25:26 Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, as well as the army officers, left for41 Egypt, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians might do.
Jehoiachin in Babylon
25:27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh42 day of the twelfth month,43 King Evil-Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned44 King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him45 from prison. 25:28 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than46 the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 25:29 Jehoiachin47 took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life. 25:30 He was given daily provisions by the king for the rest of his life until the day he died.48