Second Book of Kings 24

¹ During his time Nebuchadnezzar[*a] king of Babylon invaded, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years but then rebelled against him a second time.

² So he sent armed bands of Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, Moabites and Ammonites against him; he sent these against Judah to destroy it, in accordance with the word that Yahweh had spoken through his servants the prophets.

³ That this happened in Judah was due entirely to the anger of Yahweh: he had resolved to thrust them away from him because of the sins of Manasseh and all that he had done,

⁴ and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed, flooding Jerusalem from end to end with innocent blood. Yahweh would not forgive.

⁵ The rest of the history of Jehoiakim, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?

⁶ Then Jehoiakim slept with his ancestors; his son Jehoiachin succeeded him.

⁷ The king of Egypt did not leave his own country again, because the king of Babylon had conquered everywhere belonging to the king of Egypt, from the wadi of Egypt to the river Euphrates.[*b]

⁸ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem.

⁹ He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, just as his father had done.

¹⁰ At that time the troops of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched on Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.

¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon himself came to attack the city while his troops were besieging it.

¹² Then Jehoiachin king of Judah surrendered to the king of Babylon, he, his mother, his officers, his nobles and his eunuchs, and the king of Babylon took them prisoner. This was in the eighth year of King Nebuchadnezzar.

¹³ The latter carried off all the treasures of the Temple of Yahweh and the treasures of the royal palace, and broke up all the golden furnishings that Solomon king of Israel had made for the sanctuary of Yahweh, as Yahweh had foretold.

¹⁴ He carried off all Jerusalem into exile, all the nobles and all the notables, ten thousand of these were exiled, with all the blacksmiths and metalworkers; only the poorest people in the country were left behind.

¹⁵ He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon, as also the king’s mother, his eunuchs and the nobility of the country; he made them all leave Jerusalem for exile in Babylon.

¹⁶ All the men of distinction, seven thousand of them, the blacksmiths and metalworkers, one thousand of them, all of them men capable of bearing arms, were led into exile in Babylon by the king of Babylon.

¹⁷ The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in succession to him, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

¹⁸ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamital, daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.

¹⁹ He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, just as Jehoiakim had done.

²⁰ That this happened in Jerusalem and Judah was due to the anger of Yahweh, with the result that in the end he cast them away from him.