2 Chronicles
Chapter 36
1 The local people chose Jehoahaz, Josiah’s son, and made him king in Jerusalem to replace his father.
2 Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he ruled for three months in Jerusalem.
3 The king of Egypt overpowered him in Jerusalem and fined the country 100 talents of silver and one talent of gold.
4 The king of Egypt made Eliakim, who was his brother, the king of Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Necho captured Jehoahaz, his brother, and took him to Egypt.
5 Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. He did things that were evil in the eyes of God.
6 Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, attacked him, tied him up, and took him to Babylon.
7 Nebuchadnezzar took the objects from God’s house to Babylon and placed them in his temple there.
8 The other things Jehoiakim did, his bad acts, and what was discovered about him are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah; then his son Jehoiachin became king after him.
9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he ruled for three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did things that God saw as bad.
10 When the year ended, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and took him to Babylon, along with the fine items from God’s house, and appointed his brother Zedekiah as king over Judah and Jerusalem.
11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem.
12 He did what was bad in God’s eyes, and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke for God.
13 He also turned against King Nebuchadnezzar, even though he had promised by God to be loyal. He became stubborn and refused to return to the God of Israel.
14 Furthermore, all the head priests and the people greatly sinned following the bad practices of other nations; and they defiled God’s temple that he had made holy in Jerusalem.
15 God of their ancestors sent them messages through his messengers, early and often, because he cared for his people and his home.
16 They made fun of God’s messengers, ignored his words, and mistreated his prophets, until God’s anger grew against his people, and there was no way to fix it.
17 So God sent the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in their holy place, and showed no mercy to young men or women, old people, or the very old; he handed them all over to him.
18 He took to Babylon all the items from God’s house, both large and small, the house of God’s treasures, and the wealth of the king and his leaders.
19 They burned God’s house, broke down Jerusalem’s wall, set all its palaces on fire, and ruined all its fine objects.
20 He took those who survived the sword to Babylon, where they served him and his sons until the Persian kingdom took over.
21 To complete what God said through Jeremiah, until the land had its rest: because while it was empty, it rested, until seventy years were completed.
22 In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, so Jeremiah’s prophecy would come true, God inspired Cyrus to announce this throughout his kingdom and to write it down:
23 Cyrus, the king of Persia, says, “God, the ruler of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the world and has told me to build a house for him in Jerusalem, in Judah. Who among you belongs to his people? May God be with that person, and may he go up to Jerusalem.”