예레미야 52

Jerusalem falls to Babylon

¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. ²He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Jehoiakim had done.^{a 3}It was because of the anger of the LORD that all this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them out of his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. ⁴On the tenth day of the tenth month, in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem with his whole army. They camped against the city and built siege works against it on every side. ⁵The city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ⁶By the ninth day of the fourth month the city was gripped by famine, and the people of the land had no food. ⁷Then the city wall was breached, and all the soldiers fled. They left the city by night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city, and they went off toward the Arabah. ⁸But the Chaldean army chased the king and caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army scattered away from him. ⁹They seized the king and took him up to Riblah in the land of Hamath, to the king of Babylon, and there the king passed sentence on him. ¹⁰The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons while he watched, and he also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah. ¹¹Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in bronze fetters, and the king of Babylon took him to Babylon and kept him in prison until the day he died. ¹²In the fifth month, on the tenth day, the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar’s reign over Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.^{b 13}He burned the house of the LORD, the king’s palace and all the houses of Jerusalem; every important house he burned down. ¹⁴The whole Chaldean army that was with the captain of the guard tore down all the walls around Jerusalem. ¹⁵Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.^{c 16}But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to tend the vineyards and work the fields.^{d 17}The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars that belonged to the house of the LORD, the stands, and the bronze Sea that was in the house of the LORD, and they hauled all the metal off to Babylon. ¹⁸They also took away the pots, the shovels, the wick trimmers, the sprinkling bowls, the dishes and all the bronze utensils used in the temple service. ¹⁹The captain of the guard took away the cups, the firepans, the sprinkling bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the dishes and the jars for drink offerings, everything that was made of gold and everything that was made of silver. ²⁰As for the two pillars, the one Sea and the twelve bronze bulls under the stands, which King Solomon made for the house of the LORD, the bronze of all these things was more than could be weighed.^{e 21}As for the pillars, each pillar was about 27 feet high, and it took a line of about 18 feet to go around it. Its metal was about 3 inches thick, and it was hollow. ²²On top of it was a bronze capital. The capital was about 7 1/2 feet high, with a network and pomegranates all around it, all of bronze. The second pillar, with its pomegranates, was the same. ²³There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; in all there were a hundred pomegranates on the network all around.^{f 24}The captain of the guard also seized Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next to him, and the three doorkeepers. ²⁵From the city he took a court officer who had been in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were found in the city, the secretary of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land for war, and sixty of the people of the land who were still in the city.^{g 26}Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard led them away to Riblah and brought them before the king of Babylon. ²⁷The king of Babylon had them struck down and executed at Riblah, in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile, away from its own land. ²⁸These are the people Nebuchadrezzar carried into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans.^{hi 29}In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, 832 people from Jerusalem.^{j 30}In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile 745 Judeans. In all there were 4,600 people.

Kindness to Jehoiachin

³¹In the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin king of Judah went into exile, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year he became king, showed favor to Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison.^{kl 32}He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor above the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³So Jehoiachin put off his prison clothes, and for the rest of his life he ate regularly at the king’s table. ³⁴And the king of Babylon gave him a regular allowance, a portion for each day, until the day he died, all the days of his life.^m