2 Kings 25

And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, that Nabouchodonosor king of Babylon came, he and all his host, against Ierousalem, and he encamped against it and built a siege wall round about it.

And the city came under siege until the eleventh year of king Sedekias.

On the ninth of the month the famine grew strong in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

And the city was broken into, and all the men of war went out by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which is by the king's garden, while the Chaldeans were round about the city; and he went by the way of the Araba.

And the host of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and overtook him in Araboth of Iericho, and all his host was scattered from about him.

And they seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Deblatha, and he pronounced judgment upon him.

And he slaughtered the sons of Sedekias before his eyes, and he blinded the eyes of Sedekias and bound him in fetters and brought him to Babylon.

And in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month—this was the nineteenth year of Nabouchodonosor king of Babylon—Nabouzardan the chief cook, who stood before the king of Babylon, came to Ierousalem.

And he burned the house of the Lord and the house of the king and all the houses of Ierousalem; every house he burned.

The chief cook.

And the remnant of the people that was left in the city, and those who had fallen away, who deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude, Nabouzardan the chief cook carried away.

But of the poor of the land the chief cook left some to be vinedressers and to be gabin.

And the bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the mechonoth and the bronze sea that was in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and they carried their bronze to Babylon.

And the cauldrons and the iamin and the bowls and the censers and all the bronze vessels with which they minister, he took.

And the firepans and the bowls, the golden ones and the silver ones, the chief cook took.

Two pillars, the one sea, and the mechonoth which Salomon had made for the house of the Lord—there was no weighing the bronze of all these vessels.

Eighteen cubits was the height of the one pillar, and the chothar upon it was of bronze, and the height of the chothar was three cubits; and there was sabacha and pomegranates upon the chothar round about, all of bronze; and the second pillar was the same, with its sabacha.

And the chief cook took Saraias the first priest and Sophonias son of the second order and the three who kept the threshold;

And from the city he took one eunuch who was the overseer over the men of war, and five men of those who saw the king's face who were found in the city, and the scribe of the commander of the host who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city.

And Nabouzardan the chief cook took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Deblatha.

And the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Deblatha in the land of Aimath. So Ioudas was carried away from off his land.

And as for the people who were left in the land of Iouda, whom Nabouchodonosor king of Babylon had left, he appointed over them Godolias son of Achikam son of Saphan.

And all the commanders of the host, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Godolias, and they came to Godolias at Massephath—Ismael son of Nathanias and Ioanan son of Karee and Saraias son of Thanemath the Netophathite and Iezonias son of the Machathite, they and their men.

And Godolias swore to them and to their men and said to them: Do not fear the passing through of the Chaldeans; dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.

And it came to pass in the seventh month that Ismael son of Nathanias son of Elisama, of the seed of the kings, came, and ten men with him, and he struck down Godolias, and he died; also the Judeans and the Chaldeans who were with him at Massephath.

And all the people arose, from small to great, and the commanders of the forces, and they entered into Egypt, because they feared before the Chaldeans.

And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Ioakim king of Iouda, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh of the month, that Euilmarodach king of Babylon, in the year of his reign, lifted up the head of Ioakim king of Iouda and brought him out of his prison house.

And he spoke kindly with him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

And he changed the garments of his imprisonment, and he ate bread continually before him all the days of his life.

And his allowance, a continual allowance, was given him from the house of the king, a daily portion for each day, all the days of his life.