1 And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and made him king for his father in Jerusalem.
2 And Jehoahaz was twenty three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
3 For the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem and merced the land in a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king upon Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name unto Jehoiakim; but Jehoahaz his brother, Neco took and carried him to Egypt.
5 And Jehoiakim was twenty five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that displeased the LORD his God.
6 Against him came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon.
7 Thereto the king Nebuchadnezzar carried off the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon and put them in his temple at Babylon.
8 The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his Abominations, and that was laid to his charge, are written in the book of the kings of Israel: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and did that displeased the LORD.
10 And when the year was out, king Nebuchadnezzar sent and fetched him to Babylon with the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.
11 And Zedekiah was twenty one years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
12 And he did that displeased the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet at the mouth of the LORD.
13 And thereto he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar which had received an oath of him by God, and was too stiff necked and too hard hearted to turn unto the LORD God of Israel.
14 Thereto, all the rulers of the priests with the people trespassed apace after all manner of abominations of the heathen, and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
15 And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, sending them betimes: for he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.
16 But they mocked the messengers of God and despised their words and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD so arose against his people that it was past remedy.
17 And so he brought upon them the king of Chaldeans and slew their young men with the sword in their holy temple, and neither spared young man nor maiden, neither old man, neither so much as him that stooped for age: But gave all into his hand.
18 And all the vessels of the house of God both great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king and his lords he carried to Babylon, every whit.
19 And they burnt the house of God and brake down the walls of Jerusalem and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire with all the goodly stuff thereof, and marred it.
20 And he carried away them that had escaped the sword to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his children, until the kingdom of Persia began to rule;
21 to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had her pleasure of her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath until she had fulfilled seventy years.
22 And the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to finish the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia that he made a proclamation throughout all this kingdom, and thereto to set it up in writing, saying,
23 "Thus sayeth Cyrus king of Persia: 'All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me, which hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem that is in the land of Judah. Wherefore, whosoever is among you of all his people, the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.'"