YIRMEYAHU 52

1 Tsiḏqiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Yerushalayim. And his mother’s name was Ḥamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu of Liḇnah.

2 And he did evil in the eyes of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, according to all that Yahoyaqim had done.

3 For through the displeasure of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 this came to be against Yerushalayim and Yahuḏah, until He had cast them out from His presence. And Tsiḏqiyahu rebelled against the sovereign of Baḇel.

4 And it came to be in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar sovereign of Baḇel and all his army came against Yerushalayim and encamped against it. And they built a siege wall against it all around.

5 And the city was under siege until the eleventh year of Sovereign Tsiḏqiyahu.

6 On the ninth of the fourth month the scarcity of food was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

7 Then the city wall was breached, and all the men of battle fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the sovereign’s garden, while the Kasdites were near the city all around. And they went by way of the desert plain.

8 But the army of the Kasdites pursued the sovereign, and they overtook Tsiḏqiyahu in the desert plains of Yeriḥo, and his entire army was scattered from him.

9 Then they captured the sovereign and brought him up to the sovereign of Baḇel at Riḇlah in the land of Ḥamath, and he pronounced judgments on him.

10 And the sovereign of Baḇel slew the sons of Tsiḏqiyahu before his eyes, and he also slew all the heads of Yahuḏah in Riḇlah.

11 And he put out the eyes of Tsiḏqiyahu. And the sovereign of Baḇel bound him in bronze shackles, and took him to Baḇel, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

12 And on the tenth of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of sovereign Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar sovereign of Baḇel, Neḇuzaraḏan, chief of the guard, who served the sovereign of Baḇel, came to Yerushalayim,

13 and he burned the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, and the sovereign’s house, and all the houses of Yerushalayim, and all the houses of the great men, he burned with fire.

14 And all the army of the Kasdites who were with the chief of the guard broke down all the walls of Yerushalayim all around.

15 And Neḇuzaraḏan, chief of the guard, exiled some of the poor people, and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the defectors who had gone over to the sovereign of Baḇel, and the rest of the craftsmen.

16 But Neḇuzaraḏan, chief of the guard, left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers.

17 And the Kasdites broke the bronze columns that were in the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, and brought all their bronze to Baḇel,

18 They also took away the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the ladles, and all the bronze utensils with which they served,

19 and the basins, and the fire holders, and the bowls, and the pots, and the lampstands, and the ladles, and the cups, whatever was of solid gold and whatever was of solid silver, the chief of the guard took.

20 The two columns, one sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were under it, and the stands, which Sovereign Shelomoh had made for the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 – the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weighing.

21 As for the columns, the height of one column was eighteen ammah, and its circumference was twelve ammah, and its thickness was four etsba’oth, hollow.

22 And a capital of bronze was on it. And the height of one capital was five ammah, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. And the second column, with pomegranates was the same.

23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides. All the pomegranates on the network were one hundred, all around.

24 And the chief of the guard took Serayah the chief kohĕn, and Tsephanyah the second kohĕn, and the three door-keepers.

25 And from the city he took one eunuch who was in charge of the men of battle, and seven men who saw the sovereign’s face, who were found in the city, and the scribe of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city.

26 And Neḇuzaraḏan, chief of the guard, took these and brought them to the sovereign of Baḇel at Riḇlah,

27 and the sovereign of Baḇel smote them and put them to death at Riḇlah in the land of Ḥamath. Thus Yahuḏah was exiled from its own land.

28 These are the people whom Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar exiled: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Yahuḏim;

29 in the eighteenth year of Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar he exiled from Yerushalayim eight hundred and thirty-two beings;

30 in the twenty-third year of Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar, Neḇuzaraḏan, chief of the guard, exiled of the Yahudim seven hundred and forty-five beings. All the beings were four thousand six hundred.

31 And it came to be in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Yahoyaḵin sovereign of Yahuḏah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, that Ewil-Meroḏaḵ sovereign of Baḇel, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Yahoyaḵin sovereign of Yahuḏah and brought him out of prison,

32 and spoke kindly to him and placed his throne above those of the sovereigns who were with him in Baḇel.

33 So he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread continually before the sovereign all the days of his life.

34 And as for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the sovereign of Baḇel, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.