CHAPTER 24

¹In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia came up, and Jehoiakim was his vassal for three years, and he turned back and rebelled against him. ²And the LORD sent against him the Chaldean brigades and the Aramean brigades and the Moabite brigades and the Ammonite brigades, and He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD which He had spoken through his servants the prophets. ³Only by the LORD’s decree was this in Judah, to remove it from His presence for the offense of Manasseh, according to all that he had done. ⁴And also for the innocent blood that he had shed and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. And the LORD did not want to forgive. ⁵And the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Judah? ⁶And Jehoiakim lay with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son was king in his stead. ⁷And the king of Egypt no longer went out from his land, for the king of Babylonia had taken all that was the king of Egypt’s, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River. ⁸Eighteen years old was Jehoiachin when he became king, and three months he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem. ⁹And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, as all that his father had done. ¹⁰At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia went up against Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. ¹¹And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia came against the city, and his servants were besieging it. ¹²And Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylonia—he and his mother and his servants and his commanders and his eunuchs—and the king of Babylonia took him in the eighth year of his reign. ¹³And he took out from there all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the house of the king, and he cut up all the golden vessels that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had spoken. ¹⁴And he exiled all Jerusalem and all the commanders and all the valiant warriors, ten thousand exiles, and no artisan nor metalsmith remained, only the poor people of the land. ¹⁵And he exiled Jehoiachin to Babylonia, and the king’s mother and the king’s wives and his eunuchs and the nobles of the land he led into exile to Babylonia. ¹⁶And all the fighting men, seven thousand, and the artisans and the metalsmiths a thousand, all of them battle-tested warriors. And the king of Babylonia brought them in exile to Babylonia. ¹⁷And the king of Babylonia made Mattaniah his uncle king in his stead, and he changed his name to Zedekiah. ¹⁸Twenty-one years old was Zedekiah when he became king, and eleven years he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. ¹⁹And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD as all that Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰For because of the LORD’s wrath, it was against Jerusalem and against Judah, till He flung them from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylonia.