nd Kings _Chapter 24

During the reign of Jehoiakim, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon went up to Judah. Jehoiah served him for three years and then betrayed him.

The Lord sent the Chaldean army, Aramaic army, Moab army, and Ammon army to attack Jehoiakim and destroy Judah, as the Lord had said through his servants the prophets.

This calamity has indeed come upon the people of Judah, which the Lord has commanded to drive them out from before him, because of all the sins that Manasseh has committed.

And because he shed innocent blood, he filled Jerusalem. The Lord will never forgive.

And all the other things that Jehoiakim did were written in the book of the kings of Judah.

Jehoiakim slept with his ancestors. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

The king of Egypt will no longer come out of other countries. Because the king of Babylon took away the land under the control of the king of Egypt, from the streams of Egypt to the Euphrates.

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for three months. His mother’s name was Nehushtar, the daughter of Elinathan from Jerusalem.

Jehoiachin did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as all his father had done.

At that time, the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon went up to Jerusalem and besieged the city.

When his army besieged the city, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon himself came.

King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, servants, leaders, and eunuchs, went out of the city and surrendered to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon captured him. That was the eighth year of the Babylonian king.

The king of Babylon took away the temple of the Lord and all the treasures in the palace, and destroyed all the gold vessels in the temple of the Lord that King Solomon of Israel had made, as the Lord had said.

He also took all the people and leaders of Jerusalem, as well as all the mighty warriors, totaling ten thousand, including all the carpenters and blacksmiths. Apart from the extremely poor people in the country, there is nothing left.

And he took Jehoiachin, his mother, his concubines, eunuchs, and the high-ranking officials of the kingdom, and brought them captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.

And he took all seven thousand warriors and a thousand carpenters and blacksmiths, all warriors capable of going to battle, and carried them all captive to Babylon.

The king of Babylon appointed Mattaniah, the uncle of Jehoiachin, as king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutah, the daughter of Jeremiah the Litnah.

Zedekiah did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done.

Therefore the anger of the Lord was raging in Jerusalem and Judah, driving the people out from before him.