2 Kings 25:1-23

1And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it on all sides. 2And the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. 4And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city on all sides:) and the king went the way toward the plain. 5And the army of the Chaldees pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him. 6So they took the king, and brought him to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they pronounced sentence upon him.1 7And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.2

8And in the fifth month, on the seventhday of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, to Jerusalem:3 9And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house he burnt with fire. 10And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls of Jerusalem on all sides. 11Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away.4 12But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and farmers. 13And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon. 14And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass by which they ministered, they took away. 15And the firepans, and the basins, and such things as were of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver, the captain of the guard took away. 16The two pillars, one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD; the brass of all these vessels was beyond weight.5 17The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the capital upon it was brass: and the height of the capital three cubits; and the wreathen work, and pomegranates upon the capital around, all of brass: and like these had the second pillar with wreathen work. 18And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:6 19And out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war, and five men of them that were in the king’s presence, who were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land that were found in the city:789 20And Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah: 21And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their land.

22And as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler. 23And when all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, there came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.