Second Book of Chronicles 36

¹ The country people took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in succession to his father.

² Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem.

³ The king of Egypt carried him off from Jerusalem and imposed a levy of a hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold on the country.

⁴ The king of Egypt then made Eliakim, brother of Jehoahaz, king of Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Neco took his brother Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt.

⁵ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what is displeasing to Yahweh his God.

⁶ Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked him, loaded him with chains and carried him off to Babylon.

⁷ To Babylon Nebuchadnezzar also carried off part of the furnishings of the Temple of Yahweh and put them in his palace at Babylon.

⁸ The rest of the history of Jehoiakim, the shameful things he did and those discovered to his discredit, these are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him.

⁹ Jehoiachin was eight years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what is displeasing to Yahweh.

¹⁰ At the turn of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and had him taken to Babylon, with the precious furnishings of the Temple of Yahweh, and made Zedekiah his brother[*a] king of Judah and Jerusalem in his place.

¹¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem.

¹² He did what is displeasing to Yahweh his God. He did not listen humbly to the prophet Jeremiah, accredited by Yahweh himself.

¹³ He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar to whom he had sworn allegiance by God. He became stubborn, and obstinately refused to return to Yahweh the God of Israel.

¹⁴ Furthermore, all the heads of the priesthood, and the people too, added infidelity to infidelity, copying all the shameful practices of the nations and defiling the Temple that Yahweh had consecrated for himself in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, tirelessly sent them messenger after messenger, since he wished to spare his people and his house.

¹⁶ But they ridiculed the messengers of God, they despised his words, they laughed at his prophets, until at last the wrath of Yahweh rose so high against his people that there was no further remedy.

¹⁷ He summoned against them the king of the Chaldaeans who put their young warriors to the sword within their sanctuary; he spared neither youth nor virgin, neither old man nor aged cripple; God handed them all over to him.

¹⁸ All the furnishings of the Temple of God, large and small, the treasures of the Temple of Yahweh, the treasures of the king and his officials, he carried everything off to Babylon.

¹⁹ They burned down the Temple of God, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, set fire to all its palaces, and destroyed everything of value in it.

²⁰ The survivors were deported by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon; they were to serve him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.

²¹ This is how the word of Yahweh was fulfilled that he spoke through Jeremiah, ‘Until this land has enjoyed its sabbath rest, until seventy years have gone by, it will keep sabbath throughout the days of its desolation’.

²² And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfil the word of Yahweh that was spoken through Jeremiah, Yahweh roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and to have it publicly displayed throughout his kingdom:

²³ ‘Thus speaks Cyrus king of Persia, “Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; he has ordered me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up.”‘