The Divided Kingdom

But the army of the Kasdim went in pursuit of the king and overtook him on the plains near Yericho; all his troops deserted him.

Then they took the king and brought him up to the king of Bavel in Rivlah, where they passed judgment on him.

They slaughtered his sons before his eyes. Then they put out Tzidkiyahu's eyes, bound him in chains and carried him off to Bavel.

In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was also the nineteenth year of King N'vukhadnetzar, king of Bavel, N'vuzar'adan, the commander of the guard and an officer of the king of Bavel, entered Yerushalayim.

He burned down the house of ADONAI, the royal palace and all the houses in Yerushalayim - every notable person's house he burned to the ground.

The whole army of the Kasdim, who were with the commander of the guard, broke down the walls of Yerushalayim on every side.

N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard then deported the remaining population of the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Bavel and the rest of the common people.

But the commander of the guard left behind some of the poor people of the land to be vineyard-workers and farmers.

The Kasdim smashed the bronze columns in the house of ADONAI, also the trolleys and bronze Sea that were in the house of ADONAI, and carried their bronze to Bavel.

They also took away the pots, shovels, snuffers, pans, and all the bronze articles that had been used for worship.

The commander of the guard took the censers, the sprinkling bowls, everything made of gold and everything made of silver.

The bronze in the two columns, the one Sea and the bases, all of which Shlomo had made for the house of ADONAI, was more than could be weighed.

The height of one column was thirty-one-and-a-half feet; on it was a capital of bronze five-and-a-quarter feet high, with netting and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze; the second column was similar, also with netting.

The commander of the guard took [prisoner] S'rayah the chief cohen, Z'kharyah the second-ranking cohen and three doorkeepers.

From the city he took an official in charge of the soldiers, five close associates of the king who had been found in the city, the army commander's secretary in charge of military conscription, and sixty of the common people found in the city.

N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Bavel in Rivlah.

There in Rivlah, in the land of Hamat, the king of Bavel had them put to death. Thus Y'hudah was carried away captive out of his land.

N'vukhadnetzar king of Babylon appointed G'dalyahu the son of Achikam, the son of Shafan, governor over the people remaining behind in the land of Y'hudah after he left.

When all the army officers and their men heard that the king of Bavel had made G'dalyahu governor, they came to G'dalyahu in Mitzpah - Yishma'el the son of N'tanyah, Yochanan the son of Kareach, S'rayah the son of Tanchumet the N'tofati and Ya'azanyahu the son of the Ma'akhati - they and their men.

Taking an oath, G'dalyahu said to them, "Don't be afraid of the servants of the Kasdim. Just live in the land and serve the king of Bavel, and things will go well for you."

But in the seventh month Yishma'el the son of N'tanyah, the son of Elishama, of royal blood, came with ten men and assassinated G'dalyah and the Judeans and Kasdim who were with him in Mitzpah.

In the wake of this, all kinds of people, great and small, as well as the army officers, set out and went to Egypt; because they were afraid of the Kasdim.

In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Y'hoyakhin king of Y'hudah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Eveel-M'rodakh began his reign as king of Bavel; and in his first year he commuted the sentence of Y'hoyakhin king of Y'hudah and released him from prison.

He treated him with kindness and gave him a throne higher than those of the other kings there with him in Bavel.

So Y'hoyakhin no longer had to wear prison clothes; moreover, he was provided with food as long as he lived;