'King' in the Bible

Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him. The king questioned him secretly in his house: "Is there a message from the LORD?"

Jeremiah said, "There is," and then he said, "You will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon." Then Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, "What offense have I committed against you, your officials, or these people that you have put me in prison?

Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, telling you: "The king of Babylon won't come against you or against this land'?

So King Zedekiah gave the order, and they assigned Jeremiah to the courtyard of the guard. Each day they gave him a loaf of bread from the bakers' street until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

This is what the LORD says: "This city will surely be given to the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.'"

Then the officials told the king, "Let this man be put to death because he's undermining the efforts of the soldiers who remain in this city and that of all the people by speaking words like these to them. Indeed, this man is not seeking the well-being of this people, but rather their harm."

King Zedekiah said, "Look, he's in your hands, and the king can do nothing to you."

Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch in the king's house, heard that Jeremiah had been put in the cistern. The king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate,

so Ebed-melech went out of the palace and spoke to the king:

Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Ethiopian: "Thirty men are at your disposal. Take them with you and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies."

King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to him at the third entrance to the LORD's Temple. The king told Jeremiah, "I'm going to ask you something, and don't hide anything from me."

Then King Zedekiah, in secret, swore an oath to Jeremiah: "As surely as the LORD lives, who gave us this life to live, I won't have you put to death, nor will I hand you over to these men who are seeking to kill you."

So Jeremiah told Zedekiah, "This is what the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "If you will immediately surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live, and this city won't be burned with fire. Both you and your family will live.

But if you don't surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given to the Chaldeans, and they'll burn it with fire. You won't escape from their hands.'"

Then King Zedekiah told Jeremiah, "I'm afraid of the Judeans who have gone over to the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans may turn me over to them, and they may treat me harshly."

Look, all the women who are left in the house of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon, and will say, "These friends of yours have mislead you and overcome you. Your feet have sunk down into the mire, but they have turned away.'

"They'll bring all your women and children out to the Chaldeans, and you won't escape from their hand. Indeed, you will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned with fire."

If the officials hear that I've spoken with you, and they come to you and say, "Tell us what you told the king, and what the king told you; don't hide it from us, and we won't put you to death,'

then you are to say to them, "I was presenting my request to the king that I not be taken back to the house of Jonathan to die there.'"

When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he replied to them exactly as the king had ordered him. So they stopped speaking with him because the conversation had not been overheard.

This is how Jerusalem was captured: In the tenth month of the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it.

All the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the Middle Gate, including Nergal-sarri-usur, governor of Sinmagir, Nabu-sarrussu-ukin the high official, Nergal-sarri-user, the chief official, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.

When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled and went out of the city at night through the king's garden through the gate between the two walls. Then he went out on the road toward the Arabah.

The Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah on the plains of Jericho. When they seized him they brought him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed judgment on him.

At Riblah, the king of Babylon executed Zedekiah's sons right before his eyes. He also executed all the nobles of Judah.

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave orders concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard:

So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, Nebushazban, the high official, Nergal-sar-ezer, the chief official, and all the officials of the king of Babylon sent for Jeremiah.

When he still did not respond, Nebuzaradan said, "Return to Ahikam's son Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and remain with him among the people or go wherever it seems right for you to go." Then the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a gift and sent him off.

All the leaders of the forces who were in the field along with their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Ahikam's son Gedaliah over the men, women, children, and the poor of the land who had not been taken into exile in Babylon.

Ahikam's son Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan, swore an oath to them and their men: "Don't be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Remain in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and things will go well for you.

All the Judeans who were in Moab, those with the people in Ammon, those in Edom, and those in all the other countries also heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant for Judah and that he had appointed Ahikam's son Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan, over them.

They told him, "Are you aware that Baalis, the king of the people of Ammon, has sent Nethaniah's son Ishmael to take your life?" But Ahikam's son Gedaliah did not believe them.

In the seventh month, Nethaniah's son Ishmael, the grandson of Elishama, a member of the royal family and one of the chief officers of the king, came to Ahikam's son Gedaliah at Mizpah, along with ten men. While they were dining together there at Mizpah,

Nethaniah's son Ishmael and the ten men with him got up and killed Ahikam's son Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan, with swords and killed the man whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

Ishmael threw the bodies of the men he killed on account of Gedaliah into the cistern that King Asa had made for protection against King Baasha of Israel. That is the same one Nethaniah's son Ishmael filled with those he killed.

because of the Chaldeans. They were afraid of the Chaldeans because Nethaniah's son Ishmael had killed Ahikam's son Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon as you have been. Don't fear him,' declares the LORD, "because I am with you to save you and deliver you from his control.

the young men, the women, the children, the daughters of the king, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Ahikam's son Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan, along with Jeremiah the prophet and Neriah's son Baruch.

Then say to them, "This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "I'm going to send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I'll take him and set his throne over these stones that I've buried, and he will spread his canopy over them.

This is what the LORD says: "Look, I'm going to give Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hands of his enemies and into the hands of those seeking his life, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who was seeking his life."

This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Neriah's son Baruch, when in the fourth year of the reign of Josiah's son King Jehoiakim of Judah had, at Jeremiah's dictation, written these words in a scroll:

To Egypt: Concerning the army of King Pharaoh Neco of Egypt, which was encamped by the Euphrates River at Carchemish and which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of the reign of Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah.

This is the message that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to conquer the land of Egypt.

There they'll cry out, "Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is just a big noise. He has let the appointed time pass by.'

As certainly as I'm alive and living," declares the King, whose name is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "Indeed, one will come like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea.

I'll give them to those who are seeking their lives and to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his officers. Then afterwards, Egypt will be inhabited as in times past," declares the LORD.

Moab will be destroyed, and the enemy will come up against her cities. Her finest young men will go down to slaughter," declares the King, whose name is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

To Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed: This is what the LORD says: "Arise, go against Kedar! Plunder the people of the east!

Flee! Run away quickly! Go to a remote place to stay, residents of Hazor," declares the LORD. "For King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has formed a plan and devised a strategy against them.

This is what came as a message from the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet about Elam at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah:

I'll put my throne in Elam, and destroy the king and the officials there," declares the LORD.

"Israel is a scattered flock, driven out by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria, and then afterward King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gnawed his bones.

Therefore this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Look, I'm about to judge the king of Babylon and his land, just as I've judged the king of Assyria.

The king of Babylon has heard the news about them, and his hands hang limp. Distress has seized him, like a woman in labor.

One runner runs to meet another runner, and one messenger to meet another messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been seized from one end to the other.

"King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me and crushed me. He set me down like an empty vessel. He swallowed me like a monster, and filled his belly with my delicacies. Then he washed me away.

I'll make their leaders, their wise men, their governors, their deputies, and their warriors drunk so that they sleep forever and don't wake up," declares the King whose name is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet delivered to Neriah's son Seraiah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with King Zedekiah of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster.

Because Jerusalem and Judah had angered the Lord, he cast them out of his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon,

and in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with all his army. He encamped near it and set up siege works all around it.

The city was under siege until the eleventh year of the reign of King Zedekiah.

The Chaldean army went after the king, overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his troops were scattered from him.

They captured the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where the king of Babylon passed judgment on him.

The king of Babylon killed Zedekiah's sons before his eyes, and he also killed all the Judean officials at Riblah.

He blinded Zedekiah and bound him in bronze shackles. Then the king of Babylon took him to Babylon and put him in prison until he died.

In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month it was the nineteenth year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.

Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.

There was too much bronze to weigh in the two pillars, the one sea, the twelve bronze oxen that were under the sea, and the stands which King Solomon had made for the LORD's Temple.

Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard arrested them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

The king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from the land.

In the first year of his reign, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, showed favor to King Jehoiachin of Judah by releasing him from prison on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah.

Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes and regularly dined with the king as long as he lived.

As for his living expenses, a regular allowance was given him daily by the king of Babylon as long as he lived, until the day of his death.