A recapitulation of the reign of Sedecias, and the destruction of
Jerusalem. The number of the captives.
52:1. Sedecias was one and twenty years old when he began to reign: and
he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and the name of his mother was
Amital, the daughter of Jeremias of Lobna.
52:2. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according
to all that Joakim had done.
52:3. For the wrath of the Lord was against Jerusalem, and against
Juda, till he cast them out from his presence: and Sedecias revolted
from the king of Babylon.
52:4. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth
month, the tenth day of the month, that Nabuchodonosor the king of
Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and they besieged
it, and built forts against it round about.
52:5. And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king
Sedecias.
52:6. And in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a famine
overpowered the city: and there was no food for the people of the land.
52:7. And the city was broken up, and the men of war fled, and went out
of the city in the night by the way of the gate that is between the two
walls, and leadeth to the king's garden, (the Chaldeans besieging the
city round about,) and they went by the way that leadeth to the
wilderness.
52:8. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king: and they
overtook Sedecias in the desert which is near Jericho: and all his
companions were scattered from him.
52:9. And when they had taken the king, they carried him to the king of
Babylon to Reblatha, which is in the land of Emath: and he gave
judgment upon him.
52:10. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias before his
eyes: and he slew all the princes of Juda in Reblatha.
52:11. And he put out the eyes of Sedecias, and bound him with fetters,
and the king of Babylon brought him into Babylon, and he put him in
prison till the day of his death.
52:12. And in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, the same is
the nineteenth year of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came Nabuzardan
the general of the army, who stood before the king of Babylon in
Jerusalem.
52:13. And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and
all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burnt with fire.
52:14. And all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the general
broke down all the wall of Jerusalem round about.
52:15. But Nabuzardan the general carried away captives some of the
poor people, and of the rest of the common sort who remained in the
city, and of the fugitives that were fled over to the king of Babylon,
and the rest of the multitude.
52:16. But of the poor of the land, Nabuzardan the general left some
for vinedressers, and for husbandmen.
52:17. The Chaldeans also broke in pieces the brazen pillars that were
in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the sea of brass that was
in the house of the Lord: and they carried all the brass of them to
Babylon.
52:18. And they took the caldrons, and the fleshhooks, and the
psalteries, and the bowls, and the little mortars, and all the brazen
vessels that had been used in the ministry: and
52:19. The general took away the pitchers, and the censers, and the
pots, and the basins, and the candlesticks, and the mortars, and the
cups: as many as were of gold, in gold: and as many as were of silver,
in silver:
52:20. And the two pillars, and one sea, and twelve oxen of brass that
were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the
Lord: there was no weight of the brass of all these vessels.
52:21. And concerning the pillars, one pillar was eighteen cubits high:
and a cord of twelve cubits compassed it about: but the thickness
thereof was four fingers, and it was hollow within.
52:22. And chapiters of brass were upon both: and the height of one
chapiter was five cubits: and network, and pomegranates were upon the
chapiters round about, all of brass. The same of the second pillar, and
the pomegranates.
52:23. And there were ninety-six pomegranates hanging down: and the
pomegranates being a hundred in all, were compassed with network.
52:24. And the general took Saraias the chief priest, and Sophonias the
second priest, and the three keepers of the entry.
52:25. He also took out of the city one eunuch that was chief over the
men of war: and seven men of them that were near the king's person,
that were found in the city: and a scribe, an officer of the army who
exercised the young soldiers: and threescore men of the people of the
land, that were found in the midst of the city.
52:26. And Nabuzardan the general took them, and brought them to the
king of Babylon, to Reblatha.
52:27. And the king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death in
Reblatha, in the land of Emath: and Juda was carried away captive out
of his land.
52:28. This is the people whom Nabuchodonosor carried away captive: in
the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews.
52:29. In the eighteenth year of Nabuchodonosor, eight hundred and
thirty-two souls from Jerusalem.
52:30. In the three and twentieth year of Nabuchodonosor, Nabuzardan
the general carried away of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five
souls. So all the souls were four thousand six hundred.
52:31. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the
captivity of Joachin king of Juda, in the twelfth month, the five and
twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the
first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Joachin king of Juda,
and brought him forth out of prison.
52:32. And he spoke kindly to him, and he set his throne above the
thrones of the kings that were with him in Babylon.
52:33. And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread before him
always all the days of his life.
52:34. And for his diet a continual provision was allowed him by the
king of Babylon, every day a portion, until the day of his death, all
the days of his life.