CHAPTER 25
1 Forsooth it was done in the ninth year of his realm, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebu-chadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he, and all his host, into Jerusalem; and they encompassed it, and builded strongholds in the compass thereof.
2 And the city was enclosed, and encompassed, till to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah,
3 in the ninth day of the month; and hunger had mastery in the city, and there was not bread to the people of the land.
4 And the city was broken into, and all men warriors fled in the night by the way of the gate, that is betwixt the double wall, toward the garden of the king; soothly the Chaldees besieged the city in compass/about. Therefore Zedekiah fled by the way that leadeth to the field places of the wilderness;
5 and the host of Chaldees pursued the king, and took him in the plain of Jericho; and all the warriors, that were with him, were scattered abroad, and left him.
6 Therefore they led the king taken to the king of Babylon, into Riblah, which spake doom with him, that is, with Zedekiah.
7 Soothly he killed the sons of Zedekiah before him, and putted [or put] out his eyes, and bound him with chains, and led him into Babylon.
8 In the fifth month, in the seventh day of the month, that is the nine-teenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, prince of the host, [the] servant of the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem;
9 and he burnt the house of the Lord, and the house of the king, and the houses of Jerusalem, and he burnt by fire each house thereof;
10 and all the host of Chaldees, that was with the prince of knights, destroyed the walls of Jerusalem in compass.
11 Forsooth Nebuzaradan, prince of the chivalry, translated or brought over the tother part of the people, that dwelled in the city, and the fleers, that had fled over to the king of Babylon, and the remnant common people;
12 and he left of the poor men of the land vine-tillers, and earth-tillers.
13 Soothly Chaldees brake the brazen pillars, that were in the temple, and the foundaments, and the sea of brass, that was in the house of the Lord; and they translated, or bare over, all the metal into Babylon.
14 And they took the pots of brass, and trowels, and fleshhooks, and cups, and mortars, and all [the] brazen vessels, in which they ministered;
15 and censers also, and vials. The prince of the chivalry took those things that were of gold, and those that were of silver,
16 that is, two pillars, one sea, and the foundaments, or bases, which king Solomon had made to the temple of the Lord; and there was no certain weight of [the] metal of all the vessels.
17 One pillar had eighteen cubits of height, and a brazen pommel or capital upon it of the height of three cubits, and a work like a net, and pom-egranates upon the pommel of the pillar, all things of brass; and the second pillar had like adorning.
18 Also the prince of the chivalry took Seraiah, the first priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and [the] three porters,
19 and an honest and chaste servant of the city, that was sovereign over [the] men warriors, and five men of them that stood before the king, which he found in the city; and he took the Sopher, the prince of the host, that proved [the] young knights, either men able to battle, of the people of the land, and sixty men of the commons, that were found in the city;
20 which Nebuzaradan, prince of the chivalry, took, and led to the king of Babylon, into Riblah.
21 And the king of Babylon smote them, and killed them in Riblah, in the land of Hamath; and Judah was translated or brought over from his land.
22 Soothly Nebuchadnezzar made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, sovereign to the people, that was left in the land of Judah; which people Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had left in Judah.
23 And when all the dukes of knights had heard these things, they, and [all] the men that were with them, that is, that the king of Babylon had ordained Gedaliah to be their sovereign in Judah, they came to Gedaliah, in Mizpah, that is, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, and Johanan, son of Careah, and Seraiah, son of Tanhumeth of Netophah, and Jaazaniah, son of the Maachathite, they, and the fellows of them.
24 And Gedaliah swore to them, and to the fellows of them, and said, Do not ye dread to serve the Chaldees; dwell ye in the land, and serve ye the king of Babylon, and it shall be well to you.
25 Forsooth it was done in the seventh month, that is, since Gedaliah was made sovereign, that Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the king’s seed, came, and ten men with him, and they smote Gedaliah, which died; but also they smited[the] Jews and [the] Chaldees, that were with him in Mizpah.
26 And all the people rose, from the little unto the great, and the princes of knights, and they came, or fled, into Egypt, and dreaded the Chaldees.
27 Therefore it was done in the seven and thirtieth year of the transmi-gration, either passing over, of Jehoi-achin, king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the seven and twentieth day of the month, Evilmerodach, king of Babylon, in the year in which he began to reign, raised [up] the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, from prison,
28 and spake to him benignly; and he set [or put] the throne of Jehoi-achin above the throne of kings, that were with him in Babylon.
29 And Evilmerodach changed the clothes of Jehoiachin that he had in prison; and he ate bread ever[more] in the sight of Evilmerodach, in all the days of his life.
30 Also Evilmerodach ordained sus-tenance for Jehoiachin without ceasing; which sustenance also was given of the king to him by all days, in all the days of his life.