Thematic Bible: Nebuchadnezzar destroys the city and temple, takes him captive to babylon, blinds his eyes, kills his sons


Thematic Bible



It also came throughout the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.

This is what Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, the quartermaster, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign.

In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around. The city was under siege until King Zedekiah's eleventh year. By the ninth day of the [fourth] month the famine was so severe in the city that the people of the land had no food. read more.
Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors [fled] by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king's garden, even though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. As the king made his way along the route to the Arabah, the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah's entire army was scattered from him. The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him. They slaughtered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes. Finally, the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him in bronze [chains], and took him to Babylon. On the seventh day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. He burned the Lord's temple, the king's palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses. The whole Chaldean army [with] the commander of the guards tore down the walls surrounding Jerusalem.

So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their choice young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young man and virgin or elderly and aged; He handed them all over to him. He took everything to Babylon-all the articles of God's temple, large and small, the treasures of the Lord's temple, and the treasures of the king and his officials. Then the Chaldeans burned God's temple. They tore down Jerusalem's wall, burned down all its palaces, and destroyed all its valuable utensils. read more.
Those who escaped from the sword he deported to Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the rise of the Persian kingdom.

[This is] the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. At that time, the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was imprisoned in the guard's courtyard in the palace of the king of Judah.

In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to it. In the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the city was broken into. All the officials of the king of Babylon entered and sat at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer the Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of Babylon's king. read more.
When he saw them, Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers fled. They left the city at night by way of the king's garden through the gate between the two walls. They left along the route to the Arabah. However, the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, arrested him, and brought him to Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon's king, at Riblah in the land of Hamath. The king passed sentence on him [there]. At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes, and he [also] slaughtered all Judah's nobles. Then he blinded Zedekiah and put him in bronze chains to take him to Babylon. The Chaldeans next burned down the king's palace and the people's houses and tore down the walls of Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported to Babylon the rest of the people-those who had remained in the city and those deserters who had defected to him along with the rest of the people who had remained. [However,] Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and he gave them vineyards and fields at that time.

In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall all around it. The city was under siege until King Zedekiah's eleventh year. By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the people of the land had no food. read more.
Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king's garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the Arabah. The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah's entire army was scattered from him. The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him. At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes and also slaughtered the Judean commanders. Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day. On the tenth day of the fifth month-which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon-Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon. He burned the Lord's temple, the king's palace, all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the nobles. The whole Chaldean army with the commander of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported some of the poorest of the people, as well as the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. But some of the poor people of the land Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, left to be vinedressers and farmers. Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars for the Lord's temple and the water carts and the bronze reservoir that were in the Lord's temple, and carried all the bronze to Babylon. They took the pots, the shovels, the wick trimmers, the sprinkling basins, the dishes, and all the bronze articles used in [temple] service. The commander of the guards took away the bowls, the firepans, the sprinkling basins, the pots, the lampstands, the pans, and the drink offering bowls-whatever was gold or silver. As for the two pillars, the one reservoir, and the 12 bronze bulls under the water carts that King Solomon had made for the Lord's temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. One pillar was 27 feet tall, had a circumference of 18 feet, was hollow-four fingers thick- and had a bronze capital on top of it. One capital, encircled by bronze latticework and pomegranates, stood seven and a half feet high. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates. [Each capital had] 96 pomegranates all around it. All the pomegranates around the latticework numbered 100. The commander of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers. From the city he took a court official who had been appointed over the warriors; seven trusted royal aides found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and 60 men from the common people who were found within the city. Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah went into exile from its land. These are the people Nebuchadnezzar deported: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; in his eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; in Nebuchadnezzar's twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported 745 Jews. All together 4,600 people [were deported].


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