Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 281
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| 24:18–25:13
SAMUEL–KINGS
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installed Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, as the next king, and he changed
Mattaniah’s name to Zedekiah.
Zedekiah was t wenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned
in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jer
emiah from Libnah. But Zedekiah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight,
just as Jehoiakim had done. These things happened because of the Lord’s
anger against the people of Jerusalem and Judah, until he finally banished
them from his presence and sent them into exile.
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
So on January 15, during the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Neb
uchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its walls. Jerusalem was kept
under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah’s reign.
By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, the famine in the city
had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone. Then a
section of the city wall was broken down. Since the city was surrounded by
the Babylonians, the soldiers waited for nightfall and escaped through the
gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden. Then they headed
toward the Jordan Valley.
But the Babylonian troops chased the king and overtook him on the
plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered. They
captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where
they pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah. They made Zedekiah watch
as they slaughtered his sons. Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound
him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon.
On August 14 of that year, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebu
chadnezzar’s reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of
the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned down the Temple of
the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed
all the important buildings in the city. Then he supervised the entire Bab
ylonian army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side. Then
Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took as exiles the rest of the people
who remained in the city, the defectors who had declared their allegiance
to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population. But the captain of
the guard allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind to care for
the vineyards and fields.
The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars in front of the Lord’s