2 Kings
Chapter 24
1 During his reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked, and Jehoiakim served him for three years; then he changed his mind and fought against him.
2 God sent groups of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites to destroy Judah, as God had said through the prophets.
3 Certainly, by God’s command, this happened to Judah to take them away from His presence because of the sins of Manasseh and everything he did.
4 He also spilled innocent blood, filling Jerusalem with it, which God would not forgive.
5 The other things Jehoiakim did and all his actions are written in the book of the records of the kings of Judah, aren’t they?
6 Jehoiakim died like his ancestors, and his son Jehoiachin became king after him.
7 The king of Egypt did not leave his country again because the king of Babylon had taken everything the king of Egypt owned from the Egypt river to the Euphrates river.
8 Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he started to rule, and he ruled in Jerusalem for 3 months. His mother’s name was Nehushta, Elnathan of Jerusalem’s daughter.
9 He did what was evil in God’s eyes, just like his father had done.
10 At that time, King Nebuchadnezzar’s servants attacked Jerusalem, and the city was surrounded.
11 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked the city, and his soldiers surrounded it.
12 King Jehoiachin of Judah, his mother, his servants, his leaders, and his officials all went out to meet the king of Babylon. And in the eighth year of his rule, the king of Babylon captured him.
13 He took away all the treasures from God’s house and the king’s house, and destroyed all the gold objects that King Solomon of Israel had made for God’s temple, just as God had said.
14 He took all of Jerusalem, the leaders, and the strong warriors—10,000 captives, and all the skilled workers and metalworkers. Only the poorest people stayed in the land.
15 He took Jehoiachin to Babylon, along with the king’s mother, wives, officials, and the land’s important people, from Jerusalem to Babylon as prisoners.
16 All the strong men, seven thousand, and the craftsmen and metalworkers, a thousand, all good for battle, were taken to Babylon as prisoners by the king of Babylon.
17 The king of Babylon appointed Mattaniah, his uncle, as the new king and renamed him Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Hamutal, Jeremiah of Libnah’s daughter.
19 He did bad things in God’s eyes, just like Jehoiakim did.
20 Because of God’s anger, it happened in Jerusalem and Judah that he made them leave his presence, and then Zedekiah fought against the king of Babylon.