Zedekiah

And Sedecias the king of Juda, and his princes, I will give into the hands of their enemies, and into the hands of them that seek their lives, and into the hands of the armies of the king of Babylon, which are gone from you.

Now king Sedecias the son of Josias reigned instead of Jechonias the son of Joakim: whom Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon made king in the land of Juda.

And king Sedecias sent Juchal the son of Selemias, and Sophonias the son of Maasias the priest to Jeremiah the prophet, saying: Pray to the Lord our God for us.

And Jeremiah said to king Sedecias: In what have I offended against thee, or thy servants, or thy people, that thou hast cast me into prison?

Where are your prophets that prophesied to you, and said: The king of Babylon shall not come against you, and against this land?

Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

And king Sedecias said: Behold he is in your hands: for it is not lawful for the king to deny you any thing.

And king Sedecias sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet to him to the third gate, that was in the house of the Lord: and the king said to Jeremiah: I will ask thee a thing, hide nothing from me.

Then Jeremiah said to Sedecias: If I shall declare it to thee, wilt thou not put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken to me.

Then king Sedecias swore to Jeremiah, in private, saying: As the Lord liveth, that, made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, nor will I deliver thee into the hands of these men that seek thy life.

And Jeremiah said to Sedecias: Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: If thou wilt take a resolution and go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burnt with fire: and thou shalt be safe, and thy house.

And king Sedecias said to Jeremiah: I am afraid because of the Jews that are fled over to the Chaldeans: lest I should be delivered into their hands, and they should abuse me.

Then Sedecias said to Jeremiah: Let no man know these words, and thou shalt not die.

In the ninth year of Sedecias king of Juda, in the tenth month, came Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and all his army to Jerusalem, and they besieged it.

And in the eleventh year of Sedecias, in the fourth month, the fifth day of the month, the city was opened.

And when Sedecias the king of Juda and all the men of war saw them, they fled: and they went forth in the night out of the city by the way of the king's garden, and by the gate that was between the two walls, and they went out to the way of the desert.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them: and they took Sedecias in the plain of the desert of Jericho, and when they had taken him, they brought him to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon to Reblatha, which is in the land of Emath: and he gave judgment upon him.

And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias, in Reblatha, before his eyes: and the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Juda.

Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver Pharao Nechao king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life: as I delivered Sedecias king of Juda into the land of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon his enemy, and that sought his life.

The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Sedecias king of Juda, saying:

The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Saraias the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, when he went with king Sedecias to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign: now Saraias was chief over the prophecy.

Sedecias was one and twenty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and the name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremiah of Lobna.

For the wrath of the Lord was against Jerusalem, and against Juda, till he cast them out from his presence: and Sedecias revolted from the king of Babylon.

And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Sedecias.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king: and they overtook Sedecias in the desert which is near Jericho: and all his companions were scattered from him.