2 Kings 24

¹ During his reign Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, moved against him, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then Jehoiakim turned and rebelled against him.

² The LORD loosed against him bands of Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites; he loosed them against Judah to destroy it, as the LORD had threatened through his servants the prophets.

³ This befell Judah because the LORD had stated that he would inexorably put them out of his sight for the sins Manasseh had committed in all that he did;

⁴ and especially because of the innocent blood he shed, with which he filled Jerusalem, the LORD would not forgive.

⁵ The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, with all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

⁶ Jehoiakim rested with his ancestors, and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

⁷ The king of Egypt did not again leave his own land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

⁸ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

⁹ He did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his forebears had done.

¹⁰ At that time the officials of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.

¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, himself arrived at the city while his servants were besieging it.

¹² Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, together with his mother, his ministers, officers, and functionaries, surrendered to the king of Babylon, who, in the eighth year of his reign, took him captive.

¹³ He carried off all the treasures of the temple of the LORD and those of the palace, and broke up all the gold utensils that Solomon, king of Israel, had provided in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had foretold.

¹⁴ He deported all Jerusalem: all the officers and men of the army, ten thousand in number, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None were left among the people of the land except the poor.

¹⁵ He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon, and also led captive from Jerusalem to Babylon the king's mother and wives, his functionaries, and the chief men of the land.

¹⁶ The king of Babylon also led captive to Babylon all seven thousand men of the army, and a thousand craftsmen and smiths, all of them trained soldiers.

¹⁷ In place of Jehoiachin, the king of Babylon appointed his uncle Mattaniah king, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

¹⁸ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

¹⁹ He also did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.

²⁰ The LORD'S anger befell Jerusalem and Judah till he cast them out from his presence. Thus Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.