2 Chronicles 36 Cross References - ISV

¹ Jehoahaz Becomes King
After this, the people of the land installed Josiah’s son Jehoahaz in Jerusalem as king to take his father’s place. ² Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem, ³ after which the king of Egypt dethroned him and imposed a fine on the land of 100 talents of silver and one talent of gold. ⁴ King Neco of Egypt installed Jehoahaz’s brother Eliakim as king over Judah and Jerusalem, changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim, and took his brother Joahaz back to Egypt.
⁵ Jehoiakim’s Reign; Nebuchadnezzar’s First Capture of JerusalemJehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, but he practiced what the LORD his God considered to be evil. ⁶ As a result, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked him, bound him in bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon. ⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also took articles from the LORD’s Temple to Babylon and placed them in his temple in Babylon. ⁸ The rest of Jehoiakim’s accomplishments—along with the detestable things that he did that were recorded in his disfavor—are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin became king to replace him.
⁹ Jechoiachin’s Reign; Nebuchadnezzar’s Second Capture of JerusalemJehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for three months and ten days in Jerusalem, all the while doing what the LORD considered to be evil. ¹⁰ At the beginning of the next year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and brought him to Babylon, along with valuable articles from the LORD’s Temple, and he installed Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah as king over Judah and Jerusalem.
¹¹ Zedekiah Rules in Judah
Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹² He practiced what the LORD his God considered to be evil and never humbled himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke for the LORD. ¹³ Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear allegiance in the name of God. Instead, he stiffened his resolve, and hardened his heart, and would not return to the LORD God of Israel.
¹⁴ Nebuchadnezzar’s Third Capture of Jerusalem
Meanwhile, all the officials who supervised the priests and the people remained unfaithful, following the detestable example of the surrounding nations. They polluted the LORD’s Temple that he had consecrated in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ The LORD God of their ancestors pleaded with them time and again through his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on the place of his residence, ¹⁶ but they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until there was no remedy for the wrath of the LORD that arose to punish his people. ¹⁷ Therefore he brought up the king of the Chaldeans against them, who executed their young men in the holy Temple, showing no compassion on young man or young virgin, adult men or the aged. God gave them all into the king’s control, ¹⁸ who took back to Babylon every article in God’s Temple, whether large or small, including the treasuries of the LORD’s Temple, the king’s assets, and those of his officers. ¹⁹ After this, they set fire to God’s Temple, demolished the wall around Jerusalem, burned all of its fortified buildings, and destroyed everything of value. ²⁰ Nebuchadnezzar carried off to Babylon those who survived the executions, and they served him and his descendants until the kingdom of Persia came to power. ²¹ All of this fulfilled what the LORD had predicted through Jeremiah. And so the land enjoyed its Sabbaths, and the length of the land’s desolation lasted until a 70-year long Sabbath had been completed.
²² An Edict to Rebuild the Temple
During the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in fulfillment of the message from the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD prompted Cyrus, king of Persia, to make this proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, which was also released in written form: ²³ AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM CYRUS, KING OF PERSIA All of the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the LORD God of Heaven, and he specifically charged me to build a temple for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Therefore, who among the LORD’s people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem.

³⁰ Josiah’s servants drove his corpse in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in a tomb made for him.
Jehoahaz is Anointed KingThe people of the land took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, anointed him, and installed him as king in his father’s place. ³¹ Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king. He reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal. She was the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ³² He practiced what the LORD considered to be evil, just as all of his ancestors had done. ³³ Pharaoah Neco placed him in custody at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, so that he would not reign in Jerusalem, and imposed a tribute of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold.
³⁴ Jehoiakim is Made King by Pharaoh NecoPharaoh Neco installed Josiah’s son Eliakim as king to replace his father Josiah and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He transported Jehoahaz off to Egypt, where he died. ³⁵ As a result, Jehoiakim paid the silver and gold tribute to Pharaoh, but he passed on the costs to the inhabitants of the land in taxes, in keeping with Pharaoh’s orders. He exacted the silver and gold from the people who lived in the land, from each according to his assessment, in order to pay it to Pharaoh Neco. ³⁶ Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Zebidah. She was the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. ³⁷ Eliakim practiced what the LORD considered to be evil, just as his ancestors had done.

¹⁵ Josiah’s descendants included Johanan his firstborn, his second born Jehoiakim, his third born Zedekiah, and his fourth born Shallum.

¹ Uzziah Succeeds Amaziah
All the people of Judah made Uzziah king in place of his father Amaziah. Uzziah was sixteen years old at the time.

²⁵ But the people of the land executed all of the conspirators against King Amon and installed his son Josiah as king to succeed him.

¹¹ “For this is what the LORD says about Josiah’s son Shallum, king of Judah, who reigned in place of his father Josiah: ‘He went out from this place and won’t return to it again.

³³ Pharaoah Neco placed him in custody at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, so that he would not reign in Jerusalem, and imposed a tribute of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold.
³⁴ Jehoiakim is Made King by Pharaoh NecoPharaoh Neco installed Josiah’s son Eliakim as king to replace his father Josiah and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He transported Jehoahaz off to Egypt, where he died. ³⁵ As a result, Jehoiakim paid the silver and gold tribute to Pharaoh, but he passed on the costs to the inhabitants of the land in taxes, in keeping with Pharaoh’s orders. He exacted the silver and gold from the people who lived in the land, from each according to his assessment, in order to pay it to Pharaoh Neco.

¹⁰ “Don’t cry for the dead or grieve for them. Weep bitterly for the one going away, because he won’t return again nor see the land of his birth.
¹¹ “For this is what the LORD says about Josiah’s son Shallum, king of Judah, who reigned in place of his father Josiah: ‘He went out from this place and won’t return to it again. ¹² He will die in the place where they exiled him, and he won’t ever see this land again.’”

³ She raised one cub in particular, teaching that fierce lion to become a hunter-prowler— to eat human beings. ⁴ The nations heard about him. He had become caught in their trap. They brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

¹³ An Oracle against Jehoiakim“How terrible for him who builds his house without righteousness, and its upper rooms without justice, who makes his neighbor work for nothing, and does not pay him his wage. ¹⁴ How terrible for him who says, ‘I’ll build a large house for myself with spacious upper rooms, who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it red.’ ¹⁵ Are you a king because you try to outdo everyone with cedar? Your father ate and drank and upheld justice and righteousness, did he not? And then it went well for him. ¹⁶ He judged the case of the poor and needy. And then it went well for him. Isn’t this what it means to know me? ¹⁷ But your eyes and heart are on nothing but your dishonest gain, shedding the blood of innocent people, and practicing oppression and extortion.”
¹⁸ Therefore, this is what the LORD says about Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, “They won’t lament for him with these words: ‘How terrible, my brother, How terrible, my sister!’ They won’t lament for him with these words: ‘How terrible, lord, How terrible, your majesty!’ ¹⁹ He will receive a donkey’s burial, dragged out and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.”

¹ Jeremiah is ArrestedIn the beginning of the reign of Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, this message came from the LORD:

²¹ King Jehoiakim, all his troops, and all the officials heard his words, and the king sought to kill him. Uriah heard about this and was afraid, so he fled and went to Egypt. ²² King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt. He sent Achbor’s son Elnathan, along with a contingent of men into Egypt. ²³ They brought Uriah out of Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who killed him with a sword. Then they threw his body into a common grave.”

¹ The Example of the RechabitesThis is the message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD during the reign of Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, king of Judah:

¹ Jeremiah’s Scroll Read in the TempleIn the fourth year of the reign of Josiah’s son King Jehoiakim of Judah, this message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²⁷ Jeremiah Rewrites the ScrollThis message from the LORD came to Jeremiah after the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation: ²⁸ “Go back, take another scroll and write on it all the original words which were on the scroll that Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned. ²⁹ Concerning Jehoiakim, king of Judah, you are to say, ‘This is what the LORD says: “You burned this scroll, all the while saying, ‘Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon will definitely come, destroy this land, and eliminate both people and animals from it?’” ³⁰ Therefore, this is what the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim, king of Judah, “He will have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his corpse will be thrown out to rot during the heat of the day and the frost of the night. ³¹ I’ll punish him, his descendants, and his officials for their iniquity. I’ll bring on them, on the residents of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the calamity about which I’ve warned them, but they would not listen.”’”
³² Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Neriah’s son Baruch the scribe. He wrote on it, at Jeremiah’s dictation, all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah burned in the fire. He also added to them many similar words.

¹ Jehoiakim Serves NebuchadnezzarDuring his lifetime, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jehoiakim, who became his vassal for three years, after which he turned against Nebuchadnezzar and rebelled. ² The LORD sent raiding parties from the Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites against Jehoiakim. He sent them against Judah to destroy it, in keeping with the message from the LORD that he had spoken through his servants, the prophets.

⁵ Now the rest of Jehoiakim’s actions, and everything that he undertook, are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, are they not? ⁶ Jehoiakim died, as did his ancestors, and his son Jehoiachin became king in his place.

¹³ Jerusalem’s Citizens are Sent into ExileNebuchadnezzar carried off from there all of the treasures of the LORD’s Temple, along with the treasures in the king’s palace. He cut into pieces all the gold vessels in the LORD’s Temple that King Solomon of Israel had made, just as the LORD had said would happen. ¹⁴ Then Nebuchadnezzar sent away into exile all of Jerusalem—all the captains, all the valiant soldiers, 10,000 captives, and all of the craftsmen and ironworkers. Nobody remained except the poorest people of the land. ¹⁵ He sent Jehoiachin into exile to Babylon, along with the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land. He took them into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶ All 7,000 of the most valiant soldiers and 1,000 of the craftsmen and ironworkers—all physically fit and trained for battle—were brought by the king of Babylon into exile in Babylon.
¹⁷ Zedekiah is Installed as KingThe king of Babylon installed Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah as king in his place and then changed his name to Zedekiah. ¹⁸ Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king. He reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Hamutal. She was the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ¹⁹ Zedekiah practiced what the LORD considered to be evil, just as Jehoiakim had done, ²⁰ because through the LORD’s anger these things happened to Jerusalem and Judah until he threw them from his presence.
Nebuchadnezzar Captures JerusalemZedekiah then rebelled against the king of Babylon,

¹¹ so the LORD brought in the army commanders who worked for the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him in bronze chains, and took him off to Babylon.

⁹ I’m now sending for all the tribes from the north, declares the LORD, and for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I’ll bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I’ll utterly destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting desolation.

⁵ When she learned that her plans had been frustrated and that her hopes were dashed, she took another of her cubs and turned him into a fierce lion. ⁶ He prowled around among the lions, became a strong, young lion, and learned to become a hunter-prowler— to eat human beings. ⁷ He raped the women, devastating their towns. The land was made desolate, and all the while the land was filled with the sound of his roaring. ⁸ The surrounding nations attacked. They tossed their net over him, and he was caught in their trap. ⁹ They imprisoned him in a cage with hooks and brought him to the king of Babel. Then they placed him in their dungeon where his voice would no longer be heard on the mountains of Israel.

¹ Hostages of the Babylonian CaptivityIn the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. ² Within a week, the Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him, along with valuable objects from the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar brought them to the temple of his god in the land of Shinar and stored them in its treasure house.

⁵ God’s Response: The Coming Chaldean Invasion“Look out at the nations and pay attention! Be astounded! Be really astounded! Because something is happening in your lifetime that you won’t believe, even if it were described down to the smallest detail. ⁶ Watch out! For I am bringing in the Chaldeans, that cruel and impetuous people, who sweep across the earth dispossessing people from homes not their own. ⁷ They are terrible and fearsome; their brand of justice and sense of honor derive only from themselves! ⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards, and more cunning than wolves that attack at night. Their horsemen are galloping as they approach from far away. They swoop in like ravenous vultures. ⁹ “They all come to oppress— hordes of them, their faces pressing onward— they take prisoners as numerous as the desert sand! ¹⁰ They make fun of kings, deriding those who rule. They laugh at all of the fortified places, constructing ramps to seize them.

¹³ Jerusalem’s Citizens are Sent into ExileNebuchadnezzar carried off from there all of the treasures of the LORD’s Temple, along with the treasures in the king’s palace. He cut into pieces all the gold vessels in the LORD’s Temple that King Solomon of Israel had made, just as the LORD had said would happen.

⁷ Temple Instruments ReturnedKing Cyrus also brought out from storage the service instruments from the Temple of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his gods. ⁸ Cyrus, king of Persia, had them brought out to Mithredath the Treasurer, had them inventoried, and had them placed in care of Sheshbazzar, governor of Judah. ⁹ Here is a partial inventory:
Gold dishes: 30
Silver dishes: 1,000
Sacrificial knives: 29
¹⁰ Gold bowls: 30
Silver bowls of another kind: 410
Miscellaneous instruments: 1,000
¹¹ The complete inventory of gold and silver vessels totaled 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought them all to Jerusalem, along with the exiles from Babylon.

¹⁶ The People and Priests Told to Submit to BabylonThen I spoke to the priests and all this people: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: “The vessels from the Temple are about to be returned from Babylon very soon now.” Indeed, they’re prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁷ Don’t listen to them! Serve the king of Babylon and you’ll live. Why should this city become a ruin? ¹⁸ If they’re prophets, and if they have a message from the LORD, let them plead with the LORD of the Heavenly Armies so that the utensils that remain in the LORD’s Temple, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem might not be taken to Babylon.

³ and within two years I’ll bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD’s Temple that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took from this place and carried to Babylon.

² Within a week, the Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him, along with valuable objects from the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar brought them to the temple of his god in the land of Shinar and stored them in its treasure house.

² Under the influence of wine, Belshazzar ordered that the gold and silver vessels his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem be brought in so the king, his officials, his wives, and his mistresses could drink from them. ³ As ordered, they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the sanctuary of God’s Temple in Jerusalem, and the king, his officials, his wives, and mistresses drank from them. ⁴ As they drank the wine, they praised gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

¹⁶ Jehoiakim’s descendants included his son Jeconiah, and his son Zedekiah.
¹⁷ The descendants of Jeconiah, who was taken captive to Babylon, included his son Shealtiel,

²⁴ An Oracle against Jehoiachin“As certainly as I’m alive and living,” declares the LORD, “even if Jehoiakim’s son King Jehoiachin of Judah were a signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off

²⁸ “Is this man Jehoiachin a despised and shattered jar, a vessel no one wants? Why were he and his descendants hurled away, thrown into a land that they didn’t know?

¹¹ Josiah fathered Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
¹² After the deportation to Babylon, Jechoniah fathered Salathiel, Salathiel fathered Zerubbabel,

⁸ Jehoiachin Becomes KingJehoiachin became king at the age of eighteen years, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother was named Hausa. She was the daughter of Elzaphan of Jerusalem. ⁹ He practiced what the LORD considered to be evil, just as his ancestors had done. ¹⁰ At that time, the servants of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem and the city was placed under siege. ¹¹ King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up against the city, along with his servants, who besieged it. ¹² King Jehoiachin of Judah surrendered to the king of Babylon (as did his mother, his servants, his princes, and his officers) during the eighth year of his reign.
¹³ Jerusalem’s Citizens are Sent into ExileNebuchadnezzar carried off from there all of the treasures of the LORD’s Temple, along with the treasures in the king’s palace. He cut into pieces all the gold vessels in the LORD’s Temple that King Solomon of Israel had made, just as the LORD had said would happen. ¹⁴ Then Nebuchadnezzar sent away into exile all of Jerusalem—all the captains, all the valiant soldiers, 10,000 captives, and all of the craftsmen and ironworkers. Nobody remained except the poorest people of the land. ¹⁵ He sent Jehoiachin into exile to Babylon, along with the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land. He took them into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶ All 7,000 of the most valiant soldiers and 1,000 of the craftsmen and ironworkers—all physically fit and trained for battle—were brought by the king of Babylon into exile in Babylon.
¹⁷ Zedekiah is Installed as KingThe king of Babylon installed Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah as king in his place and then changed his name to Zedekiah.

¹ David’s AdulteryOne spring day, during the time of year when kings go off to war, David sent out Joab, along with his personal staff and all of Israel’s army. They utterly destroyed the Ammonites and then attacked Rabbah while David remained in Jerusalem.

²⁷ Jehoiachin Leaves PrisonLater on, after King Jehoiachin of Judah had been in exile for 37 years, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, during the first year of his reign, King Evil-merodach of Babylon released King Jehoiachin of Judah from prison. ²⁸ He spoke kindly to him and elevated his position above the thrones of the kings with him in Babylon. ²⁹ Jehoiachin changed out of his prison clothes and had regular meals in the king’s presence every day for the rest of his life, ³⁰ and a regular stipend was provided to him by the king in accordance with his needs for as long as he lived.

¹⁵ Josiah’s descendants included Johanan his firstborn, his second born Jehoiakim, his third born Zedekiah, and his fourth born Shallum.
¹⁶ Jehoiakim’s descendants included his son Jeconiah, and his son Zedekiah.

⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also took articles from the LORD’s Temple to Babylon and placed them in his temple in Babylon.

¹⁸ who took back to Babylon every article in God’s Temple, whether large or small, including the treasuries of the LORD’s Temple, the king’s assets, and those of his officers.

²⁵ and give you to those who are trying to kill you, whom you fear—that is, to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Chaldeans.

¹ Two Baskets of FigsAfter Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken Jehoiakim’s son Jeconiah, king of Judah, along with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the smiths from Jerusalem into exile, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed right in front of the Temple of the LORD.

¹⁸ If they’re prophets, and if they have a message from the LORD, let them plead with the LORD of the Heavenly Armies so that the utensils that remain in the LORD’s Temple, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem might not be taken to Babylon. ¹⁹ For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says about the pillars, the bronze sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that remain in this city ²⁰ that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn’t take when he took Jehoiakim’s son Jeconiah, king of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem from Jerusalem into exile to Babylon— ²¹ For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel says about the vessels that remain in the LORD’s Temple, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, ²² “They’ll go into Babylon and there they’ll remain until the time I take note of them,” declares the LORD. “Then I’ll bring them up and return them to this place.”’”

¹ Jeremiah’s Letter to the ExilesThese are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, ² after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the palace officials, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths left Jerusalem.

¹ Zedekiah Consults JeremiahJosiah’s son King Zedekiah reigned in place of Jehoiakim’s son Coniah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made king of the land of Judah.

² The Vision of the Fire CloudOn the fifth day of the month in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s imprisonment in exile,

¹² “Tell my rebellious house, ‘Don’t you know what these things mean? Look! The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, captured her king and princes, and took them with him to Babylon.

² Under the influence of wine, Belshazzar ordered that the gold and silver vessels his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem be brought in so the king, his officials, his wives, and his mistresses could drink from them.

²³ “You’ve exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven.
“You’ve had the vessels from his Temple brought into your presence.
“And you, your officials, and your wives and mistresses drank wine from them.
“You praised gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which can’t see, hear, or demonstrate knowledge.
“But you didn’t honor God, who holds in his power your very life and all your ways.

¹ Jeremiah Tells the Nations to Submit to BabylonAt the beginning of the reign of Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, this message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

¹ Jeremiah Challenges a False ProphetIn that same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fourth year and the fifth month, Azzur’s son Hananiah, the prophet from Gibeon, told me at the LORD’s Temple in front of the priests and all the people,

¹ The Fall of JerusalemZedekiah was 21 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ² Zedekiah had done evil in the LORD’s sight, just as Jehoiakim had done. ³ Because Jerusalem and Judah had angered the Lord, he cast them out of his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon,

³ Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the LORD God of the Hebrews says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so they may serve me.

²⁶ But Hezekiah humbled himself while he was arrogant in heart, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem joined him in this. As a result, the LORD’s wrath did not come upon them during Hezekiah’s lifetime.

¹² But when he was in trouble, he sought the face of the LORD his God, humbled himself magnificently before the God of his ancestors,

¹⁹ His prayer, how God was moved by him, all of his sin and unfaithfulness, and a record of the sites where he constructed high places, erected Asherim and carved images before he humbled himself are written in the Acts of the Seers.

²³ except that he never humbled himself to the LORD like his father Manasseh had done. In fact, Amon multiplied his own guilt

²² But Josiah wouldn’t turn around. In fact, he put on a disguise so he could fight Neco. He wouldn’t listen to what God told him through what Neco had to say, and as a result, Josiah came to attack Neco on the Megiddo plain.

¹ Zedekiah’s Request for a MiracleThe message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Malchijah’s son Pashhur and Maaseiah’s son Zephaniah the priest: ² Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is fighting against us. Perhaps the LORD will do some of his miraculous acts for us, and Nebuchadnezzar will depart from us.”
³ Jeremiah told them, “This is what you are to say to Zedekiah, ⁴ ‘This is what the LORD God of Israel says: “I’m about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. I’ll gather them into the center of this city. ⁵ Because of my anger, wrath, and great fury, I’ll fight against you myself with an outstretched hand and a strong arm. ⁶ I’ll strike down the residents of this city, both people and animals, and they’ll die from a terrible plague. ⁷ Afterwards,” declares the LORD, “I’ll give King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people—those who are left in this city from the plague, the sword, and the famine—into the control of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, right into the hand of their enemies and the hand of those who want to kill them. He’ll execute them with swords and won’t pity them. He won’t spare them, nor will he have compassion on them.”’
⁸ “You are to say to this people, ‘This is what the LORD says: “I’m about to set before you the way of life and the way of death. ⁹ Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, by famine, and by the plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live. He will save his life as a spoil of war. ¹⁰ Indeed, I’m firmly decided—I’m sending calamity to this city, not good,” declares the LORD. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will set it on fire.”’

¹² Zedekiah Told to Submit to BabylonI spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah using words like these: “Bring your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people, and you will live! ¹³ Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by plague as the LORD has decreed about the nation that does not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴ Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, ‘You won’t serve the king of Babylon.’ Indeed, they’re prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁵ For I didn’t send them,” declares the LORD, “and they’re falsely prophesying in my name, so I will drive both you and the prophets who prophesy to you out of the land.”
¹⁶ The People and Priests Told to Submit to BabylonThen I spoke to the priests and all this people: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: “The vessels from the Temple are about to be returned from Babylon very soon now.” Indeed, they’re prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁷ Don’t listen to them! Serve the king of Babylon and you’ll live. Why should this city become a ruin?

¹² This message from the LORD came to Jeremiah after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet: ¹³ “Go and say to Hananiah, ‘This is what the LORD says: “You have broken wooden yokes, but you have made iron yokes in their place.” ¹⁴ For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I’ve put an iron yoke on the necks of all these nations to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. They’ll serve him, and I’ve even given the wild animals to him.”’”
¹⁵ The prophet Jeremiah told the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD didn’t send you, and you are causing these people to trust in a lie. ¹⁶ Therefore, this is what the LORD says: ‘I’m about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you will die because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.’”
¹⁷ So the prophet Hananiah died in the seventh month of that year.

² “This is what the LORD God of Israel says: ‘Go and speak to king Zedekiah of Judah. Say to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Look, I’m giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will set it on fire. ³ You won’t escape from him. You will certainly be captured and given into his control. You will see the king of Babylon eye to eye, he will speak to you face to face, and you will go to Babylon.’”’ ⁴ Yet, hear this message from the LORD, king Zedekiah of Judah. This is what the LORD says to you, ‘You won’t die by the sword. ⁵ You will die peacefully, and as they burned fires for your ancestors, the former kings who were before you, so they’ll burn fires for you, wailing, “Oh how terrible, your majesty!”’ For I’ve spoken the message,” declares the LORD.
⁶ Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all of this in Jerusalem to king Zedekiah of Judah, ⁷ while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah that were left, namely Lachish and Azekah. (They were the only fortified cities that remained among the cities of Judah.)
⁸ A Broken Agreement with Hebrew ServantsThis is this message from the LORD that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem proclaiming release for them. ⁹ Each person was to set free his male and female slaves who were Hebrews, so that no Jewish person would enslave his brother. ¹⁰ All the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant agreed that each would set his male and female slaves free so that they would not enslave them any longer. They obeyed and they released them. ¹¹ But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves that they had set free, and they forced them to become male and female slaves.
¹² Then this message from the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ¹³ “This is what the LORD God of Israel says: ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. I told them: ¹⁴ “At the end of seven years, each of you is to set free your fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you and has served you for six years. You are to send him out from you with no further obligation.” But your ancestors didn’t obey me or pay attention. ¹⁵ You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming release for one another, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name. ¹⁶ But then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves whom you had set free according to their desire, and you forced them to become male and female slaves.”’
¹⁷ “Therefore, this is what the LORD says: ‘You haven’t obeyed me by each of you proclaiming a release for your brothers and neighbors. Now I’m going to proclaim a release for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘a release to the sword, to plague, and to famine, and I’ll make you a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸ I’ll give over the men who transgressed my covenant, who haven’t fulfilled the terms of the covenant that they made before me when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts— ¹⁹ the officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf. ²⁰ I’ll give them to their enemies who are seeking to kill them, and their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the land. ²¹ I’ll give Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his officials into the domination of their enemies, to those who are seeking to kill them, and to the army of the king of Babylon that is coming against them. ²² Look, I’m in command of them,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I’ll bring them back to this city. They’ll capture it and burn it with fire, and I’ll turn the towns of Judah into desolate places without inhabitants.’”

² But neither he nor his officials nor the people of the land listened to the words of the LORD that were spoken by Jeremiah the prophet.
³ King Zedekiah sent Shelemiah’s son Jehucal and Maaseiah’s son Zephaniah the priest to Jeremiah the prophet, asking him, “Please pray to the LORD our God for us.” ⁴ Now Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people since he had not yet been put in prison. ⁵ Pharaoh’s army had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.
⁶ Then this message from the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet: ⁷ “This is what the LORD God of Israel says: ‘This is what you are to say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to inquire of me, “Look, Pharaoh’s army that has come to help will go back to its own land of Egypt, ⁸ and then the Chaldeans will come back to fight against this city, to capture it, and burn it with fire.”’ ⁹ “This is what the LORD says: ‘Don’t deceive yourselves by saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” ‘for they won’t go. ¹⁰ Indeed, even if you defeated the entire Chaldean army that is fighting against you, and they had only wounded men left in their tents, they would get up and burn this city with fire.’”’”
¹¹ Jeremiah Arrested for TreasonWhen the Chaldean army was leaving Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army, ¹² Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go to the territory of Benjamin to take possession of his property there among the people. ¹³ He was in the Gate of Benjamin, and chief officer Irijah, Shelemiah’s son and the grandson of Hananiah, was there. He arrested Jeremiah the prophet, accusing him: “You are going over to the Chaldeans!”
¹⁴ Jeremiah said, “It’s a lie! I’m not going over to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah would not listen to him, and he arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵ The officials were angry with Jeremiah and beat him. They put him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe because they had made it into a prison. ¹⁶ So Jeremiah came into the cells in the dungeon and remained there for a long time.
¹⁷ Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him. The king questioned him secretly in his house: “Is there a message from the LORD?”
Jeremiah said, “There is,” and then he said, “You will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon.” ¹⁸ Then Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, “What offense have I committed against you, your officials, or these people that you have put me in prison? ¹⁹ Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, telling you: ‘The king of Babylon won’t come against you or against this land’? ²⁰ Now, please listen, your majesty, and pay attention to what I’m asking you. Don’t make me go back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, so I don’t die there.”
²¹ So King Zedekiah gave the order, and they assigned Jeremiah to the courtyard of the guard. Each day they gave him a loaf of bread from the bakers’ street until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

¹⁴ Zedekiah Again Seeks Advice from JeremiahKing Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to him at the third entrance to the LORD’s Temple. The king told Jeremiah, “I’m going to ask you something, and don’t hide anything from me.”
¹⁵ Jeremiah told Zedekiah, “When I tell you, you will surely put me to death, won’t you? And when I give you advice, you don’t listen to me.”
¹⁶ Then King Zedekiah, in secret, swore an oath to Jeremiah: “As surely as the LORD lives, who gave us this life to live, I won’t have you put to death, nor will I hand you over to these men who are seeking to kill you.”
¹⁷ So Jeremiah told Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you will immediately surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live, and this city won’t be burned with fire. Both you and your family will live. ¹⁸ But if you don’t surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given to the Chaldeans, and they’ll burn it with fire. You won’t escape from their hands.’”
¹⁹ Then King Zedekiah told Jeremiah, “I’m afraid of the Judeans who have gone over to the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans may turn me over to them, and they may treat me harshly.”
²⁰ Jeremiah said, “They won’t turn you over. Obey the LORD in what I’m telling you, and it will go well for you and you will live. ²¹ But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD has shown me: ²² Look, all the women who are left in the house of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon, and will say, ‘These friends of yours have mislead you and overcome you. Your feet have sunk down into the mire, but they have turned away.’
²³ “They’ll bring all your women and children out to the Chaldeans, and you won’t escape from their hand. Indeed, you will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned with fire.”
²⁴ Then Zedekiah told Jeremiah, “Don’t let anyone know about these words and you won’t die. ²⁵ If the officials hear that I’ve spoken with you, and they come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you told the king, and what the king told you; don’t hide it from us, and we won’t put you to death,’ ²⁶ then you are to say to them, ‘I was presenting my request to the king that I not be taken back to the house of Jonathan to die there.’”
²⁷ When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he replied to them exactly as the king had ordered him. So they stopped speaking with him because the conversation had not been overheard. ²⁸ Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.

²² “But you, Belshazzar, his grandson, haven’t humbled yourself, even though you knew all of this.
²³ “You’ve exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven.
“You’ve had the vessels from his Temple brought into your presence.
“And you, your officials, and your wives and mistresses drank wine from them.
“You praised gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which can’t see, hear, or demonstrate knowledge.
“But you didn’t honor God, who holds in his power your very life and all your ways.

¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the Lord’s presence, and he will exalt you.

⁶ Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you.

¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, just as the LORD had predicted.

³² But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart, and he did not let the people go.

¹⁷ You are still acting arrogantly against my people by not letting them go.

¹⁵ They made a treaty with them, guaranteeing their lives with a covenant, and the leaders of the congregation confirmed it with an oath to them.

¹⁹ Then all of the leaders spoke to the entire congregation, “We have sworn to them in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them. ²⁰ So this is what we’ll do to them: we’ll let them live, so that wrath won’t come upon us because of the oath that we swore to them.”

² So the king called together the Gibeonites and conferred with them. Now the Gibeonites weren’t part of the nation of Israel, but were the survivors from the Amorites. Although the Israelis had promised to spare them, Saul had started to execute them in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.

⁴ But the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy involving Hoshea, who had sent envoys to King So of Egypt and stopped offering tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done annually. As a result, the king of Assyria placed him under arrest and sent him to prison.

²⁰ because through the LORD’s anger these things happened to Jerusalem and Judah until he threw them from his presence.
Nebuchadnezzar Captures JerusalemZedekiah then rebelled against the king of Babylon,

⁸ So don’t be stiff-necked like your ancestors were. Instead, submit to the LORD, enter his sanctuary that he has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God so that he’ll stop being angry with you.

¹⁶ “But they—our ancestors—became arrogant and stubborn, refusing to listen to your commands. ¹⁷ They would not listen, and did not remember the miracles you did among them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return them to their slavery. “But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and rich in gracious love; therefore you did not abandon them.

²⁹ You admonished them to return to your Law, but they acted arrogantly, and would not listen to your commands. They sinned against your regulations, which if anyone obeys, he will live by them. They turned away, being stubborn and stiff-necked, and they did not listen.

⁴ Because I knew that you are obstinate, and because your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is bronze,

¹¹ The Meaning of the ParableThis message came to me from the LORD: ¹² “Tell my rebellious house, ‘Don’t you know what these things mean? Look! The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, captured her king and princes, and took them with him to Babylon. ¹³ Then he took one of the royal descendants, made a covenant with him, and put him under an oath of loyalty, taking the leaders of the land captive ¹⁴ in order to humiliate the kingdom so it wouldn’t be able to return to power, but would still be able to continue as long as he keeps his covenant. ¹⁵ But he rebelled against the king of Babylon by sending his messengers to Egypt to obtain horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Or will the one who did this escape? Will he break the covenant, but still be delivered?’”
¹⁶ God will Punish the King“As long as I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “in Babylon, that place where the king has enthroned him, whose oath he despised so as to break his covenant, he’ll die with him. ¹⁷ Pharaoh, with his massive army and large battalions won’t protect him when mounds and siege walls are built to destroy many people. ¹⁸ He despised the oath he had made and broke the covenant. Look! Because he willingly submitted, yet he has done all these things, he won’t escape.
¹⁹ Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says, “As long as I live, because he despised my oath and broke my covenant, he’s going to suffer the consequences. ²⁰ I’ll spread my net over him so that he’ll be caught in my snare. I’ll bring him to Babylon and carry out my sentence there because of his treachery toward me.

⁴ Or are you unaware of his rich kindness, forbearance, and patience, that it is God’s kindness that is leading you to repent?
⁵ But because of your stubborn and unrepentant heart you are reserving wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

⁸ do not harden your hearts as they did when they provoked me during the time of testing in the wilderness.

¹³ Instead, continue to encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin,

¹⁰ King Ahaz Constructs a Pagan Altar
King Ahaz traveled to Damascus and met with King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, where he observed the altar at Damascus. So King Ahaz sent a set of construction patterns of this altar to Uriah the priest. ¹¹ Uriah the priest built an altar, following the plans that King Ahaz had sent him from Damascus and finishing the altar before King Ahaz returned from Damascus. ¹² When the king returned from Damascus, as soon as he saw the altar, he approached it and offered sacrifices on it. ¹³ He presented a burnt offering, a meat offering, poured out a drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of a peace offering on his altar. ¹⁴ Then he took the bronze altar that stood in the LORD’s presence from in front of the Temple, moved it to the north side of his altar, ¹⁵ and issued these orders to Uriah the priest: “Burn the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and grain offering, the whole burnt offering, the grain offering, and the drink offering on behalf of all the people of the land on the large altar. And sprinkle all the blood from the burnt offering and from the sacrifice. But I will use the bronze altar to ask God questions.”
¹⁶ So Uriah the priest did precisely what King Ahaz ordered.

³ burned incense in the Ben-hinnom Valley, and burned his sons as an offering, following the detestable activities of the nations whom the LORD had expelled in front of the people of Israel.

⁴ He also built altars in the LORD’s Temple, about which the LORD had spoken “My name will reside in Jerusalem forever.” ⁵ He built altars for all the armies of heaven in the two courtyards of the LORD’s Temple. ⁶ He burned his sons as an offering in the Ben-hinnom Valley, practiced fortune-telling, witchcraft, sorcery, and communicated with mediums and separatists. He did a lot of things that the LORD considered to be evil, thus provoking him. ⁷ He also placed an image that he had carved in God’s Temple, the place about which God had told to David and to his son Solomon, “I will place my name in this Temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,”

⁹ This is how Manasseh deceived Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to practice more evil than the nations whom the LORD had eliminated in front of the Israelis.

⁷ We have lived in great sin from the days of our ancestors even until today, and because of those iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered over to foreign kings, for execution, for captivity, for plunder, and for humiliation, as is the case today.

⁵ Let me go to the leaders and speak to them. For they know the LORD’s way, the requirement of their God.”
The LORD Answers “But they, all together, have broken the yoke and torn off the restraints.

¹³ He was in the Gate of Benjamin, and chief officer Irijah, Shelemiah’s son and the grandson of Hananiah, was there. He arrested Jeremiah the prophet, accusing him: “You are going over to the Chaldeans!”
¹⁴ Jeremiah said, “It’s a lie! I’m not going over to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah would not listen to him, and he arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵ The officials were angry with Jeremiah and beat him. They put him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe because they had made it into a prison.

⁴ Then the officials told the king, “Let this man be put to death because he’s undermining the efforts of the soldiers who remain in this city and that of all the people by speaking words like these to them. Indeed, this man is not seeking the well-being of this people, but rather their harm.”

⁵ Then he told me, “Son of Man, look up toward the north.”
So I looked off toward the north. Suddenly, off toward the north, facing the gate that led to the altar, the image that provoked God’s jealousy was standing near the entrance.
⁶ Then the Spirit told me, “Son of Man, don’t you see what they’re doing? The house of Israel practices awful, detestable things here, so I’m going far away from my sanctuary. But you’re about to see things even more detestable than these.”
⁷ Idol Worship in the TempleThen the Spirit brought me to the entrance of the court. As I watched, all of a sudden, there was a hole in the wall! ⁸ Then he told me, “Son of Man, dig through the wall!” So I dug into the wall. That’s when I uncovered an entrance!
⁹ Then he told me, “Go on through that entrance, so you may see the wicked, detestable things that they’re committing here.”
¹⁰ So I entered, looked around, and there was every form of crawling thing, loathsome animals, and all kinds of idols from the house of Israel carved all around the wall. ¹¹ I saw 70 men from the elders of the house of Israel standing among them, including Shaphan’s son Jaazaniah. Each man held a censer in his hand. As the scent of the cloud of incense ascended, ¹² the Spirit asked me, “Do you see, Son of Man, what the elders of Israel’s house are doing in secret, each in the chamber of his own carved idol? They keep saying, ‘God doesn’t see us. The LORD has abandoned the land.’”
¹³ Then the Spirit told me, “You’re about to see even more detestable practices that they’re doing!”
¹⁴ Women Weeping for TammuzThen he brought me to the entrance of the gate to the LORD’s Temple, which faced the north. That’s where I saw women seated, weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ Then he asked me, “Do you see this, Son of Man? You’re about to see even more detestable practices than these.”
¹⁶ Sun Worship in the TempleThen he brought me to the inner court of the LORD’s Temple. There, at the entrance to the LORD’s Temple, between the porch and the altar, were 25 men, with their backs toward the LORD’s Temple and facing the east, prostrating themselves to the sun.

⁶ “‘“Watch out! Each of the princes of Israel has misused his authority to shed blood.

²⁶ Her priests have violated my Law and profaned my sacred things. They didn’t differentiate between what’s sacred and what’s common. They didn’t instruct others to discern clean from unclean things. They refused to keep my Sabbaths.
“‘I’m constantly being profaned among them. ²⁷ Her princes within her are like wolves tearing their prey apart. They shed blood, destroying souls, and make unjust gain.
²⁸ “‘Her prophets whitewashed all of these things through false visions and lying divinations. They kept on saying, “This is what the Lord GOD says…”, when the LORD has not spoken.

⁶ Furthermore, we haven’t listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, to our officials, to our ancestors, and to all of the people of the land.

⁸ ‘Open humiliation belongs to us, LORD, to our kings, our officials, and our ancestors, because we’ve sinned against you.

¹ “He will say, ‘Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you officials of the house of Israel! You should know justice, should you not?— ² you who despise good and love evil, who tear off the skin of my people, along with the flesh from their bones. ³ You eat the flesh of my people, flaying their skin from them. You break their bones, chopping them in pieces like meat for a pot, like meat destined for a soup kettle.’ ⁴ “Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not listen to them. In fact, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they were so wicked in what they were doing.”

⁹ Please listen to this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you officials of the house of Israel, you who hate administering justice, who pervert the very meaning of equity, ¹⁰ who are building up Zion by means of bloodshed, and Jerusalem by means of iniquity. ¹¹ Her leaders judge for the money, her priests teach only when they’re paid, and her prophets prophesy for cash. Even so, don’t they all rely on the LORD as they ask, ‘The LORD is among us, is he not? Nothing bad can possibly happen to us!’

² The faithful have died off, and there is not one upright human being in the land. They all stalk one another with lethal intent, a man will even hunt his own brother with a net.

³ Its national officials are roaring lions; its judges are like wolves of the night that don’t leave the bones for the morning. ⁴ Its prophets are arrogant and treacherous. Its priests have contaminated the sanctuary. They give perverse interpretations of the Law.

¹⁶ When they put away their foreign gods and served the LORD, he brought Israel’s misery to an end.

²³ but the LORD showed grace to them, displayed his compassion toward them, and turned to them due to his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He would not destroy them or evict them from his presence up until that time.

¹³ Nevertheless, the LORD had warned both Israel and Judah by means of every prophet and seer: “Turn away from your evil practices and keep my commandments and statutes according to the entire Law that I gave your ancestors and that I sent to you through my servants, the prophets.”

¹⁸ They abandoned the LORD’s Temple and the God of their fathers, and they served Asherim and idols. As a result this guilt of theirs resulted in wrath coming upon Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Nevertheless, God sent prophets among them to bring them back to the LORD.
²⁰ Then Jehoiada the priest’s son Zechariah was clothed by the Spirit of God, and he stood above the people and told them, “This is what God has to say: ‘Why are you breaking the LORD’s commandments. You’ll never be successful! Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.’”
²¹ But the people conspired against him, and at the direct orders of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the LORD’s Temple.

¹⁰ Manasseh Repents and is RestoredThe LORD kept on speaking to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention to him,

¹³ Now, because you have done all these things,” declares the LORD, “I spoke to you over and over again, but you didn’t listen. I called to you, but you didn’t answer.

²⁵ From the day your ancestors left the land of Egypt to this present time, I’ve sent all my servants, the prophets, to you, again and again.

³ “From the thirteenth year of the reign of Ammon’s son Josiah, the king of Judah, until the present time, for 23 years this message from the LORD has come to me, and I’ve spoken to you again and again, but you haven’t listened. ⁴ Again and again, the LORD sent all his servants, the prophets, to you, but you wouldn’t listen or even turn your ears in my direction to hear.

⁵ and listen to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I’ve sent to you over and over—but you wouldn’t listen—

¹⁵ I’ve sent you all my servants, the prophets, sending them again and again. I’ve said, ‘Each of you turn from his evil behavior and make your deeds right. Don’t follow other gods to serve them. Then you will remain in the land that I gave to you and to your ancestors.’ But you haven’t paid attention and you haven’t obeyed me.

⁴ Yet I sent all my servants the prophets to you again and again, saying, “Don’t do this repulsive thing that I hate.” ⁵ ‘But they didn’t listen or pay attention by turning from their wickedness and not offering sacrifices to other gods.

⁸ “How can I give up on you, Ephraim? I will deliver you, will I not, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? I can’t make you like Zeboim, can I? My heart stirs within me; my compassion also fans into flame!

⁴¹ When he came closer and saw the city, he began to grieve over it: ⁴² “If you had only known today what could have brought you peace! But now it is hidden from your sight, ⁴³ because the days will come when your enemies will build walls around you, surround you, and close you in on every side. ⁴⁴ They will level you to the ground—you and those who live within your city limits. They will not leave one stone on another within your walls, because you didn’t recognize the time when you were visited.”

¹⁰ Couriers crossed from city to city throughout the territories of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but those people just mocked them and laughed at them.

¹² But because our predecessors provoked the God of Heaven to become angry, he handed them over to the control of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean who destroyed this Temple and transported the people to Babylon.

¹⁶ Malicious mockers— they gnashed their teeth against me.

¹ An instruction of Asaph
A Plea for Deliverance Why, God? Have you rejected us forever? Your anger is burning against the sheep of your pasture.

¹ A Psalm of Asaph
A Prayer for Jerusalem God, nations have invaded your land to desecrate your holy Temple, to destroy Jerusalem, ² to give the corpses of your servants as food for the birds of the skies and the flesh of your godly ones to the beasts of the earth; ³ to make their blood flow like water around Jerusalem, with no one being buried. ⁴ We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and a derision to those around us. ⁵ How long, LORD, will you be angry? Forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?

²⁴ The Consequences of Refusing Wisdom“Because I called out to you and you refused to respond— I appealed, but no one paid attention— ²⁵ because you neglected all my advice and did not want my correction, ²⁶ I will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when what you fear comes, ²⁷ when what you dread comes like a storm, and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. ²⁸ “Then they will call out to me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. ²⁹ “Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD; ³⁰ they did not want my advice, and they rejected all my correction. ³¹ They will eat the fruit of their way, and they will be filled with their own devices.

¹⁵ Therefore, disaster will overtake him suddenly. He will be broken in an instant, and he will never recover.

¹ Advice on Life and Justice After many rebukes, the stiff-necked man will be broken incurably, without any warning.

²² But as for you, don’t start mocking, or your chains will become tighter; for I have heard from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies about destruction, and it is decreed against the whole land.

¹² “They have lied about the LORD by saying, ‘He wouldn’t do that! Disaster won’t come on us. We won’t see sword and famine. ¹³ The prophets are nothing but wind, and the word is not in them. So may the disaster happen to them!’”

⁷ Jeremiah’s Complaint to the LORDYou deceived me, LORD, and I’ve been deceived. You overpowered me, and you prevailed. I’ve become a laughing stock all day long, and everyone mocks me.

³ where Zedekiah had confined him. Zedekiah had said, “Why did you prophesy and say these things? You said, ‘This is what the LORD says: “I’m about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.

⁶ So they threw Jeremiah into a cistern that belonged to the king’s son Malchijah and was located in the courtyard of the guard. When they let Jeremiah down with ropes, because there was no water in the cistern—only mud—Jeremiah sank into the mud.

¹² Rejoice and be extremely glad, because your reward in heaven is great! That’s how they persecuted the prophets who came before you.”

³³ The Parable about the Tenant Farmers
“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a wall around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went abroad. ³⁴ When harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenant farmers to collect his produce. ³⁵ But the farmers took his servants and beat one, killed another, and attacked another with stones. ³⁶ Again, he sent other servants to them, a greater number than the first, but the tenant farmers treated them the same way. ³⁷ Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the tenant farmers saw his son, they told one another, ‘This is the heir. Come on, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’ ³⁹ So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰ Now when the owner of the vineyard returns, what will he do to those farmers?”
⁴¹ They told him, “He will put those horrible men to a horrible death. Then he will lease the vineyard to other farmers who will give him his produce at harvest time.”

¹⁴ The Law and the Kingdom of God
Now the Pharisees, who love money, had been listening to all this and began to ridicule Jesus.

³² because he’ll be handed over to the unbelievers, and will be mocked, insulted, and spit on.

⁶³ Jesus is Insulted and Beaten
Then the men who were holding Jesus in custody began to make fun of him while they beat him. ⁶⁴ They blindfolded him and asked him over and over again, “Prophesy! Who is the one who hit you?”

¹¹ Even Herod and his soldiers treated him with contempt and made fun of him. He put a magnificent robe on Jesus and sent him back to Pilate.

³⁶ The soldiers also made fun of Jesus by coming up and offering him sour wine,

¹³ But others kept saying in derision, “They’re drunk on sweet wine!”

⁵² Which of the prophets did your ancestors fail to persecute? They killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

⁴¹ ‘Look, you mockers! Be amazed and die! Since I am performing an action in your days, one that you would not believe even if someone told you!’”

³² When they heard about a resurrection of the dead, some began joking about it, while others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

⁸ Therefore, whoever rejects this instruction is not rejecting human authority but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

³⁶ Still others endured taunts and floggings, and even chains and imprisonment.

¹⁴ Cascading Consequences“But if you won’t listen to me and obey all these commands, ¹⁵ and if you refuse my statutes, loathe my ordinances, and fail to carry out all of my commands, thereby breaching my covenant, ¹⁶ then I will certainly do this to you: I’ll appoint sudden terror to infect you like tuberculosis and fever. Your eyes will fail and your life will waste away. You’ll plant in vain, because your enemies will consume what you plant. ¹⁷ I’ll set my face against you so that you’ll be defeated before your enemies. Those who hate you will have dominion over you and you’ll keep fleeing even when no one is pursuing you.
¹⁸ “If, despite all of this, you still don’t listen to me, then I’ll punish you seven times more on account of your sins. ¹⁹ I’ll break your mighty pride. I’ll make the heavens to be like iron and the ground like bronze. ²⁰ Your strength will be spent in vain, because your land won’t yield its produce and the trees of the land won’t yield their fruit.
²¹ “If you live life contrary to me and remain unwilling to listen to me, then I’ll add to your wounds seven times more on account of your sins. ²² I’ll send wild beasts against you from the open country to deprive you of your children, destroy your cattle, and decrease your number so that your roads become desolate.
²³ “If, despite these things, you still won’t return to me, but live life contrary to me, ²⁴ then I’ll certainly oppose you. I’ll take vengeance against you seven fold on account of your sins. ²⁵ I’ll bring the sword against you to execute the vengeance of my covenant. When you gather in your cities, I’ll send a pestilence. As a result, you’ll be delivered into the control of your enemies. ²⁶ When I destroy the source of your bread, ten women will bake bread in one oven. Then they’ll return back your bread by weight. You’ll eat but won’t be satisfied.
²⁷ “If, after all of this time, you don’t listen to me, but instead live life contrary to me, ²⁸ I’ll oppose you with vicious rage. Indeed, I myself will punish you seven fold on account of your sins. ²⁹ At that time, you’ll eat the flesh of your sons and you’ll eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ I’ll destroy your high places and cut down your sun pillars. Then I’ll cast your dead bodies on top of the bodies of your idols. I’ll loathe you. ³¹ I’ll lay your cities to waste and destroy your sanctuaries so I don’t have to smell the scent of your soothing odors. ³² I’ll make the land so desolate that your enemies who live in it will be astonished.”
³³ Captivity among the Nations“I’ll scatter you among the nations and draw the sword after you so that your land becomes desolate and your towns become ruins. ³⁴ Then the land will finally be pleased with its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time, the land will rest and take its Sabbaths. ³⁵ As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest that it will not have had during your Sabbaths when you were living in it.
³⁶ “As for the remnants among you, I’ll bring despair in their hearts in the land of their enemies so that even the sound of a blown leaf will chase them and they flee as though pursued by the sword and fall when no one is pursuing. ³⁷ They’ll stumble over each other as though fleeing before the sword, even though no one is pursuing.
“You won’t have power to resist your enemies. ³⁸ You’ll perish among the nations and the land of your enemies will consume you. ³⁹ The remnants among you will waste away in the land of your enemies due to their iniquity. Indeed, they’ll also waste away on account of the iniquities of their ancestors with them.”
⁴⁰ Return from Captivity“Nevertheless, when they confess their iniquity, the iniquity of their ancestors, and their unfaithfulness by which they acted unfaithfully against me by living life contrary to me— ⁴¹ causing me to oppose them and take them to the land of their enemies so that the uncircumcised foreskin of their hearts can be humbled and so that they accept the punishment of their iniquity— ⁴² then I’ll remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham. I’ll also remember the land. ⁴³ They will leave the land so it can rest while it lies desolate without them. That’s when they’ll receive the punishment of their iniquity, because indeed they will have rejected my ordinances and despised my statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet, despite all of these things, when they’re in the land of their enemies, I won’t reject or despise them so as to completely destroy them and by doing so violate my covenant with them, because I am the LORD their God. ⁴⁵ Instead, on account of them, I’ll remember my covenant with their ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt right before the eyes of the nations, so that I could be their God. I am the LORD.”
⁴⁶ These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the LORD made between himself and the Israelis on Mount Sinai, as recorded by the hand of Moses.

¹⁵ Reversal of Blessings“But if you don’t obey the LORD your God and faithfully carry out all his commands and statutes that I’m giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you.
¹⁶ “Cursed will you be in the city and cursed will you be in the country.
¹⁷ “Cursed will be your grain basket and your kneading bowl.
¹⁸ “Cursed will your children be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock.
¹⁹ “Cursed will you be in your comings and goings.”
²⁰ Diseases and Drought“The LORD will send the curse among you, will confuse you, and will rebuke you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and perish quickly because of your evil deeds, since you will have forsaken him. ²¹ The LORD will cause you to be ill with long-lasting diseases until you are wiped out from the land that you are entering to possess. ²² The LORD will afflict you with tuberculosis, fever, inflammation, high fever, drought, blight, and mildew. These will attack you until you are completely destroyed. ²³ The sky above your head will become bronze while the ground beneath you will become iron. ²⁴ The LORD will change the rain on your land to powder and dust. It will come down from the sky until you are exterminated.”
²⁵ From Defeat to Exile“The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You’ll go out against them in one direction, but you’ll flee from them in seven directions. Consequently, you’ll be in a state of great terror throughout all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ Your dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to chase them away.
²⁷ “The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, skin disease, and festering rashes, and none of them will be curable. ²⁸ The LORD will afflict you with insanity, blindness, and mental confusion. ²⁹ As a result, you’ll wander aimlessly in broad daylight just as a blind person wanders in darkness. You won’t prosper in life. Instead you’ll be oppressed and plundered all day long, with no deliverer.
³⁰ You’ll be engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You’ll build a house but you won’t live in it. You’ll plant a vineyard but you won’t harvest it. ³¹ Your ox will be slaughtered in front of you, and you won’t be able to eat it. Your donkey will be stolen from you while you watch and won’t be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be handed to your enemies and there will be no deliverer. ³² Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you watch, and you won’t be able to approach them at all, and you’ll be powerless to help.
³³ “A people whom you don’t know will devour what your land and labor produces. You’ll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously ³⁴ until you are driven insane from what your eyes will see.
³⁵ “The LORD will inflict you with incurable boils on your knees and legs, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
³⁶ “The LORD will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you’ll serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ You’ll become a desolation and a proverb, and you’ll be mocked among the people where the LORD will drive you.”
³⁸ Complete Reversal“You’ll plant many seeds in a field, but your harvest will be small because the locust will consume it. ³⁹ You’ll plant a vineyard, but you won’t drink wine or harvest any grapes, because worms will consume it. ⁴⁰ You’ll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won’t be able to anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off the trees. ⁴¹ You’ll bear sons and daughters, but they won’t belong to you, because they’ll go into captivity. ⁴² Whirling locusts will consume every tree and the produce of your land. ⁴³ The foreigner in your midst will be elevated higher and higher over you, while you are brought low little by little. ⁴⁴ He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He’ll be the head, but you’ll be the tail. ⁴⁵ All these curses will come upon you and will overwhelm you until you are exterminated, because you didn’t obey the LORD your God to keep his commands and statutes, which he had commanded you. ⁴⁶ These curses will serve as a sign and wonder for you and your descendants as long as you live.”
⁴⁷ Servitude and Bondage“Because you didn’t serve the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly, despite the abundance of everything you have, ⁴⁸ you’ll serve your enemies whom the LORD your God will send against you. You will serve in famine and in drought, in nakedness, and in lack of everything. They’ll set a yoke of iron upon your neck until they have exterminated you.
⁴⁹ “The LORD will raise a distant nation against you from the other side of the earth. Swooping down like a vulture, ⁵⁰ it will be a nation whose language you don’t understand, whose stern appearance neither shows regard nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young. ⁵¹ Its army will consume the offspring of your animals and the produce of your soil until you are exterminated. They will leave you without your grain, wine, oil, the increase of your cattle, and the lamb of your flock, until you are completely destroyed. ⁵² They’ll besiege all your cities until your high and fortified walls in which you have trusted collapse throughout the land. Indeed, they will besiege all your cities, which the LORD your God gave you.”
⁵³ Cannibalism“You’ll eat your own children—the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God gave you—on account of the siege and the distress with which your enemy will oppress you. ⁵⁴ Even the compassionate man among you—the very sensitive one—will look with evil in his eyes toward his brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving sons, whom he spared. ⁵⁵ He will withhold from each of them the flesh of his sons that he is eating—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in all your cities. ⁵⁶ The most tender and sensitive lady among you, who doesn’t venture to touch the soles of her feet to the ground on account of her daintiness, will look with hostility in her eyes against her beloved husband, her sons, and her daughters. ⁵⁷ She will eat her afterbirth and her newborn children secretly—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in your cities.”
⁵⁸ Reduction in Population“If you aren’t careful to observe all the words of this Law that have been written in this book, instructing you to fear this glorious and awesome name of the LORD your God, ⁵⁹ then he will inflict extraordinary plagues on you and your children, great and lasting plagues, and severe and lasting illnesses. ⁶⁰ He will inflict on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they won’t be curable. ⁶¹ Moreover, the LORD will inflict you with illnesses and plagues that were not written in this Book of the Law, until you are exterminated. ⁶² Because you will not have obeyed the LORD your God, very few of you will be left—instead of you being as numerous as the stars in the heavens. ⁶³ Just as the LORD delighted to prosper and increase you, so now the LORD will delight to destroy, exterminate, and banish you from the land that you are about to enter to possess.”
⁶⁴ Scattering among the Nations“He’ll scatter you among the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you’ll serve other gods made of wood and stones, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. ⁶⁵ Among those nations you’ll have no rest. There’ll be no resting place for the soles of your feet. Instead, the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a despairing spirit. ⁶⁶ You’ll cling to life, being fearful by both night and day, with no assurance of survival. ⁶⁷ In the morning you’ll say, ‘I wish it were evening.’ Yet in the evening you’ll say, “I wish it were morning,” on account of what you’ll dread and what you’ll see. ⁶⁸ Finally, the LORD will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you’ll never see again. There you’ll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

¹⁸ Be alert so there is no man, woman, family, or a tribe whose heart is turning away from the LORD your God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Be alert so there will be no root among you that produces poisonous and bitter fruit, ¹⁹ because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he will bless himself and say: ‘I will have a peaceful life, even though I’m determined to be stubborn.’ By doing this he will be sweeping away both watered and parched ground alike.’
²⁰ “The LORD won’t forgive such a person. Instead, the zealous anger of the LORD will blaze against him. All the curses that were written in this book will fall on him. Then the LORD will wipe out his memory from under heaven. ²¹ The LORD will set him apart from all the tribes of Israel for destruction, according to the curses of the covenant that were written in this Book of the Law.”
²² A Reminder of Sodom and Gomorrah“Then the generation to come—your descendants after you and the foreigners who come from afar—will see plagues and illnesses infecting the land that the LORD will inflict on it. ²³ The whole land will be covered with salt pits and burning sulfur, with nothing planted, nothing sprouting, and producing no vegetation—overthrown like Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, when the LORD overthrew them in his raging fury. ²⁴ All the nations will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do this to this land? What is the meaning of this fierce and great anger?’ ²⁵ Then they will answer themselves, ‘Because they’ve abandoned the covenant of their LORD, the God of their ancestors that he had made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. ²⁶ They followed and worshipped other gods whom they had not known and whom he did not assign to them. ²⁷ For this reason, the anger of the LORD raged against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that were written in this book. ²⁸ The LORD uprooted them from the land in his anger, wrath, and great fury, deporting them to another land, and that’s the way things are today.’

¹⁸ I’m declaring to you today that you will surely be destroyed. You won’t live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and possess.

¹⁶ Then the LORD told Moses, “Look! You are about to join your ancestors. Afterwards, this people will rebel and commit prostitution with the foreign gods of the land that they are about to enter to possess. They will abandon me and break my covenant that I made with them. ¹⁷ When that happens, my anger will burn against them, because they will have abandoned me. I’ll hide my face from them, they will be consumed, and many evils and distresses will find them. When this happens, they will say, ‘These troubles have happened to us because God isn’t among us.’ ¹⁸ I’ll surely hide my face in that day on account of the evil that they will have done for they turned to other gods.”

¹⁵ Israel’s RebellionJacob dined until satisfied; Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. He grew fat, coarse, and gross, so that he abandoned the God who made him and spurned the Rock that was his salvation. ¹⁶ They provoked him to jealousy over foreigners and to anger over detestable things. ¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons— not to the real God— gods whom they didn’t know, new neighbors who had recently appeared, whom your ancestors never feared. ¹⁸ You neglected the Rock that fathered you; you abandoned God, who was awaiting your birth.
¹⁹ The LORD’s ResponseThe LORD saw it and became jealous, provoked by his sons and daughters. ²⁰ So he said: “Let me hide my face from them. I will observe what their end will be, because they are a perverted generation, children within whom there is no loyalty. ²¹ They provoked me to jealousy over non-gods, and to be angry over their vanity. Now I’ll provoke them to jealousy over a non-people; and over a foolish nation I’ll provoke them to anger. ²² For a fire breaks out in my anger— burning to the deepest part of the afterlife, consuming the earth and its produce and igniting the foundations of the mountains. ²³ I’ll bury them in misfortunes and bring them to an end with my arrows. ²⁴ Emaciated from famine, feverish from plague, and destroyed by bitterness, I’ll send fanged beasts against them, along with poisonous snakes that glide through the dust. ²⁵ Outside, the sword will cause bereavement; within, there will be terror for the young man and virgin alike, also for the nursing infant and the aged man.” ²⁶ “I said, ‘I will scatter them, erasing their memory from the human race, ²⁷ if it weren’t for dreading the taunting of their enemies— otherwise, their adversary might misinterpret and say, “Our power is great. It isn’t the LORD who made all of this happen.”’”
²⁸ Moses Warns IsraelThey are a nation devoid of purpose and without insight.

² The LORD sent raiding parties from the Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites against Jehoiakim. He sent them against Judah to destroy it, in keeping with the message from the LORD that he had spoken through his servants, the prophets. ³ It was truly by the command of the LORD against Judah that it came, in order to remove them from his sight, because of every sin that Manasseh had committed,

¹ so on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his entire army approached Jerusalem, attacked it, encamped against it, and built a siege wall that surrounded the city. ² The city remained under siege until the eleventh year of the reign of King Zedekiah. ³ By the ninth day of the fourth month, the resulting famine had become so severe in the city that no food remained for the people who lived in the land. ⁴ The city was breached, and the entire army left during the night through the gate that stood between the two walls beside the royal garden, even though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city. They escaped through the Arabah, ⁵ but the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook him in the Jericho plains, where his entire army was scattered. ⁶ The Chaldeans captured the king and brought him to Riblah, where the king of Babylon determined his sentence. ⁷ They executed Zedekiah’s sons in his presence, blinded Zedekiah, bound him with bronze chains, and transported him to Babylon.
⁸ Jerusalem is Burned and the Temple DemolishedOn the seventh day of the fifth month, which was during the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign as king of Babylon, captain of the guard Nebuzaradan, a servant of the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem ⁹ and set fire to the LORD’s Temple, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He even incinerated the lavish homes. ¹⁰ The Chaldean army that accompanied the captain of the guard demolished the walls that surrounded Jerusalem. ¹¹ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried the survivors of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude into exile. ¹² However, the captain of the guard left some of the poor people of the land to work as vinedressers and farmers.
¹³ The Chaldeans also broke into pieces and carried back to Babylon the bronze pillars that stood in the LORD’s Temple, along with the stands and the bronze sea that used to be in the LORD’s Temple. ¹⁴ They also confiscated the pots, shovels, snuffers, spoons, and the rest of the bronze vessels that were used in ministry. ¹⁵ The captain of the guard also confiscated the fire pans, basins, and whatever had been crafted of pure gold and pure silver. ¹⁶ The bronze contained in the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had crafted for the LORD’s Temple could not be inventoried for weight. ¹⁷ The height of one of the pillars was eighteen cubits, and the capital on top of it was three cubits high. A latticework carved in the form of pomegranates encircled the capital, crafted completely out of brass. The second pillar was identical to the first.
¹⁸ Judah’s Leaders are ExecutedThe captain of the guard arrested Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, three temple officials, ¹⁹ one overseer from the city who supervised the soldiers, five of the king’s advisors who had been discovered in the city, the scribe who served the army captain who mustered the army of the land, and 60 men of the land who were discovered in the city. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them to the king of Babylon at Riblah, ²¹ where the king of Babylon executed them in the land of Hamath. And so Judah was transported into exile from the land.
²² Gedaliah is Appointed GovernorNow as for the people who remained in the land of Judah whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had left behind, he appointed Ahikam’s son Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan, to rule. ²³ When all the captains of the armies, along with their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, these men visited Gedaliah at Mizpah: Nethaniah’s son Ishmael, Kareah’s son Johanan, Tanhumeth the Netophathite’s son Seraiah, and Jaazaniah, who was descended from the Maacathites. ²⁴ Gedaliah made this promise to them and to their men: “Don’t be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and things will go well with you.” ²⁵ Nevertheless, seven months later, Nethaniah’s son Ishmael, the grandson of Elishama from the royal family, came with ten men and attacked Gedaliah. As a result, he died along with the Jews and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. ²⁶ Then all the people, including those who were insignificant and those who were important, fled with the captains of the armed forces to Egypt, because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

²¹ But the people conspired against him, and at the direct orders of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the LORD’s Temple.

²⁰ Pay attention to your covenant, for the dark regions of the earth are full of violence.

² to give the corpses of your servants as food for the birds of the skies and the flesh of your godly ones to the beasts of the earth; ³ to make their blood flow like water around Jerusalem, with no one being buried.

⁸ I’ll make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. At noontime I’ll send a destroyer against the mother of a young man. I’ll cause terror and anguish to come to her unexpectedly. ⁹ “The woman who gave birth to seven will grow faint, her life will expire. Her sun will set while it’s still day. She will be disgraced and humiliated. I’ll kill the rest of them with swords in the presence of their enemies,” declares the LORD.

²¹ Therefore, make their children undergo famine, and deliver them over to death in time of war. May their women be childless widows! May their men be slaughtered! May their young men be slain by the sword in battle!

⁴² “Indeed, this is what the LORD says: ‘Just as I’m bringing all this great disaster on this people, so I’ll bring on them all the good things that I’m promising concerning them.

¹ The Fall of Jerusalem and the Capture of ZedekiahThis is how Jerusalem was captured: In the tenth month of the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. ² On the ninth day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, the wall of the city was breached. ³ All the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the Middle Gate, including Nergal-sarri-usur, governor of Sinmagir, Nabu-sarrussu-ukin the high official, Nergal-sarri-user, the chief official, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.
⁴ When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled and went out of the city at night through the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls. Then he went out on the road toward the Arabah. ⁵ The Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah on the plains of Jericho. When they seized him they brought him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed judgment on him. ⁶ At Riblah, the king of Babylon executed Zedekiah’s sons right before his eyes. He also executed all the nobles of Judah. ⁷ Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze fetters to take him to Babylon.
⁸ The Chaldeans burned the palace and the houses of the people with fire, and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the Babylonian guard, took into exile in Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to Nebuchadnezzar, and the rest of the people who remained. ¹⁰ Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who did not have anything, and he gave them vineyards and fields on that day.
¹¹ Jeremiah’s Release from PrisonNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave orders concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard: ¹² “Take him, look after him, and don’t do anything to harm him. Rather, do for him whatever he tells you.” ¹³ So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, Nebushazban, the high official, Nergal-sar-ezer, the chief official, and all the officials of the king of Babylon sent for Jeremiah. ¹⁴ They sent for Jeremiah and took him from the courtyard of the guard. They handed him over to Ahikam’s son Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan, to take him home. So he remained among the people.
¹⁵ Ebed-melech RewardedThis message from the LORD came to Jeremiah while he was confined in the courtyard of the guard: ¹⁶ “Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian: ‘This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Look, I’m going to fulfill my promise against this city for disaster rather than for good, and on that day it will happen before your eyes. ¹⁷ But I’ll deliver you on that day,” declares the LORD. “You won’t be given into the hands of the men you fear. ¹⁸ For I’ll surely deliver you, and you won’t fall by the sword. Your life will be spared because you trusted me,” declares the LORD.’”

³ And now the LORD has brought it about and has done just as he said. Because you people sinned against the LORD and didn’t obey him, this has happened to you.

¹ The Fall of JerusalemZedekiah was 21 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ² Zedekiah had done evil in the LORD’s sight, just as Jehoiakim had done. ³ Because Jerusalem and Judah had angered the Lord, he cast them out of his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon, ⁴ and in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with all his army. He encamped near it and set up siege works all around it. ⁵ The city was under siege until the eleventh year of the reign of King Zedekiah. ⁶ By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe that there was no food for the people of the land. ⁷ The wall of the city was broken through, and all the soldiers fled, leaving the city at night through the gate between the two walls next to the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They went in the direction of the Arabah.
⁸ The Chaldean army went after the king, overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his troops were scattered from him. ⁹ They captured the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where the king of Babylon passed judgment on him. ¹⁰ The king of Babylon killed Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also killed all the Judean officials at Riblah. ¹¹ He blinded Zedekiah and bound him in bronze shackles. Then the king of Babylon took him to Babylon and put him in prison until he died.
¹² The Destruction of the TempleIn the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month—it was the nineteenth year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. ¹³ He burned the LORD’s Temple, the king’s house, and all the houses in Jerusalem. He also burned every public building with fire. ¹⁴ All the Chaldean troops who were with the captain of the guard tore down all the walls around Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. ¹⁶ But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.
¹⁷ The Chaldeans broke in pieces the bronze pillars that were in the LORD’s Temple and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the LORD’s Temple, and they carried all the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸ They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the pans, and all the bronze utensils that were used in the temple service. ¹⁹ The captain of the guard took away the bowls, the fire pans, the basins, the pots, the lamp stands, the pans, and the bowls for libations, both those made of gold and those made of silver. ²⁰ There was too much bronze to weigh in the two pillars, the one sea, the twelve bronze oxen that were under the sea, and the stands which King Solomon had made for the LORD’s Temple. ²¹ Each of the pillars was twelve cubits high and its circumference twelve cubits. It was hollow and about a handbreadth thick. ²² On each pillar was a capital of bronze, and the height of each capital was five cubits. Latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capital. And the second pillar was like this, including the pomegranates. ²³ There were 96 pomegranates open to view. In all, there were 100 pomegranates all around the latticework.
²⁴ Executions and Deportations to BabylonThe captain of the guard arrested Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the next ranking priest, and the three guards of the gate. ²⁵ From the city he arrested one of the officers who had been in charge of the troops, seven men from the king’s personal advisors who were found in the city, the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and 60 men of the people of the land who were found inside the city. ²⁶ Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard arrested them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷ The king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from the land.
²⁸ These are the people Nebuchadnezzar took into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans; ²⁹ in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; ³⁰ in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took 745 people from Judah into exile. All the people taken into exile numbered 4,600.
³¹ Jehoiachin Released from PrisonIn the first year of his reign, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, showed favor to King Jehoiachin of Judah by releasing him from prison on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah. ³² He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the other kings who were in Babylon with him. ³³ Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes and regularly dined with the king as long as he lived. ³⁴ As for his living expenses, a regular allowance was given him daily by the king of Babylon as long as he lived, until the day of his death.

²⁰ Look, LORD, and take note: To whom have you done this? Should women eat their offspring, the children they have cuddled? Should priests and prophets be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? ²¹ Young men and the aged lie on the ground in the streets; my young women and young men have fallen by the sword. You killed them in your anger, slaughtering them without pity. ²² You have invited those who terrorize me to come around, as if today were a festival. No one has escaped or survived the time of the LORD’s anger. My enemy has finished off those whom I cuddled and raised.

⁵ As I continued to listen, he also told the others, “Follow him through the city and start killing. Don’t spare anyone you see, and don’t show pity of any kind. ⁶ You are to execute old men, young men, young women, little children, and women. But don’t touch anyone who has been marked. Begin at my Holy Place!” And so they started with the elders who were in standing in front of the Temple.
⁷ “Desecrate my Temple,” he told them, “and fill its courtyard with the dead!” So they went out and began striking down people throughout the city.

¹⁴ So the LORD watched for the right time to bring the calamity upon us, because the LORD our God is righteous regarding everything he does, but we have not obeyed his voice.

¹ Repent or DieAt that time, some people who were there told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² He asked them, “Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans because they suffered like this?

¹³ Hezekiah listened to the entourage and showed them his entire treasury, including the silver, gold, and spices, the precious oil, his armory, and everything that was inventoried in his treasuries. There was nothing in his household or in his holdings that Hezekiah did not show them.
¹⁴ Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men have to say, and where did they come from?”
Hezekiah replied, “They came from a country far away—from Babylon.”
¹⁵ He asked, “What did they see in your household?”
Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything. In my household there is nothing in my treasuries that I haven’t shown them.”
¹⁶ Then Isaiah replied to Hezekiah, “Listen to this message from the LORD: ¹⁷ ‘Watch out! The days are coming when everything that’s in your house—everything that your ancestors have saved up right to this day—will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ declares the LORD.

¹³ The Chaldeans also broke into pieces and carried back to Babylon the bronze pillars that stood in the LORD’s Temple, along with the stands and the bronze sea that used to be in the LORD’s Temple. ¹⁴ They also confiscated the pots, shovels, snuffers, spoons, and the rest of the bronze vessels that were used in ministry. ¹⁵ The captain of the guard also confiscated the fire pans, basins, and whatever had been crafted of pure gold and pure silver. ¹⁶ The bronze contained in the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had crafted for the LORD’s Temple could not be inventoried for weight. ¹⁷ The height of one of the pillars was eighteen cubits, and the capital on top of it was three cubits high. A latticework carved in the form of pomegranates encircled the capital, crafted completely out of brass. The second pillar was identical to the first.

¹⁰ At the beginning of the next year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and brought him to Babylon, along with valuable articles from the LORD’s Temple, and he installed Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah as king over Judah and Jerusalem.

⁶ ‘The days are surely coming when everything in your palace and all that your ancestors have stored up to this day will be carried off to Babylon. They will come in, and nothing will be left,’ says the LORD.

¹⁷ The Chaldeans broke in pieces the bronze pillars that were in the LORD’s Temple and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the LORD’s Temple, and they carried all the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸ They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the pans, and all the bronze utensils that were used in the temple service. ¹⁹ The captain of the guard took away the bowls, the fire pans, the basins, the pots, the lamp stands, the pans, and the bowls for libations, both those made of gold and those made of silver. ²⁰ There was too much bronze to weigh in the two pillars, the one sea, the twelve bronze oxen that were under the sea, and the stands which King Solomon had made for the LORD’s Temple. ²¹ Each of the pillars was twelve cubits high and its circumference twelve cubits. It was hollow and about a handbreadth thick. ²² On each pillar was a capital of bronze, and the height of each capital was five cubits. Latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capital. And the second pillar was like this, including the pomegranates. ²³ There were 96 pomegranates open to view. In all, there were 100 pomegranates all around the latticework.

³ As ordered, they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the sanctuary of God’s Temple in Jerusalem, and the king, his officials, his wives, and mistresses drank from them.

⁶ But my words and my statutes that I gave as commands to my servants the prophets—did they not overwhelm your ancestors? And they returned to me: ‘The LORD of the Heavenly Armies acted toward us just as he planned to do—in keeping with our lifestyles and in keeping with our actions.’”

⁸ “This Temple will become a pile of ruins. Everyone who passes by it will be so astounded that they will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do this to this land and to this Temple?’

⁹ and set fire to the LORD’s Temple, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He even incinerated the lavish homes. ¹⁰ The Chaldean army that accompanied the captain of the guard demolished the walls that surrounded Jerusalem. ¹¹ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried the survivors of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude into exile.

⁴ Those who are opposing you roar where we were meeting with you; they unfurl their war banners as signs. ⁵ As one blazes a trail through a forest with an ax, ⁶ now they’re tearing down all its carved work with hatchets and hammers. ⁷ They burned your sanctuary to the ground, desecrating your dwelling place. ⁸ They say to themselves, “We’ll crush them completely;” They burned down all the meeting places of God in the land.

¹ A Psalm of Asaph
A Prayer for Jerusalem God, nations have invaded your land to desecrate your holy Temple, to destroy Jerusalem,

⁷ For they consumed Jacob, making his dwelling place desolate.

¹⁰ Your holy cities have become a desert; Zion has become like a desert, Jerusalem a desolation. ¹¹ Our holy Temple and our splendor, where our ancestors praised you, have become a conflagration of fire, and all our dearest places have become ruins.

⁴ Don’t trust deceptive words like these, and say, ‘The Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD,’

¹⁴ Just as I did to Shiloh, I’ll do to the house in which you trust and which is called by my name, the place that I gave to you and your ancestors.

¹³ He burned the LORD’s Temple, the king’s house, and all the houses in Jerusalem. He also burned every public building with fire. ¹⁴ All the Chaldean troops who were with the captain of the guard tore down all the walls around Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.

¹ Zion’s Punishment How tarnished the gold has become, the finest gold debased! Sacred stones have been scattered at every street corner.

¹² “Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed up like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the Temple Mount like a forest high place.”

⁶ “As for these things that you see, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another that won’t be knocked down.”

⁴⁷ Servitude and Bondage“Because you didn’t serve the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly, despite the abundance of everything you have, ⁴⁸ you’ll serve your enemies whom the LORD your God will send against you. You will serve in famine and in drought, in nakedness, and in lack of everything. They’ll set a yoke of iron upon your neck until they have exterminated you.

¹¹ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried the survivors of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude into exile.

²² An Edict to Rebuild the Temple
During the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in fulfillment of the message from the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD prompted Cyrus, king of Persia, to make this proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, which was also released in written form:

¹ An Edict to Rebuild the Temple
During the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in fulfillment of the message from the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD prompted Cyrus, king of Persia, to make this proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, which was also released in written form: ² AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM CYRUS, KING OF PERSIA All of the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the LORD God of Heaven, and he specifically charged me to build a temple for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ³ Therefore, who among the LORD’s people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem of Judah to rebuild the Temple of the LORD God of Israel, the God of Jerusalem. ⁴ Furthermore, everyone who wishes to repatriate from any territory where he now resides is to receive assistance from his fellow residents in the form of silver, gold, equipment, and pack animals, in addition to voluntary offerings for the Temple of the God of Jerusalem.
⁵ In response, the heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and descendants of Levi, and all those who had been prompted by God, prepared to travel to rebuild the Temple of the LORD, which was in Jerusalem. ⁶ So all of their neighbors equipped the travelers with silver, gold, equipment, pack animals, and valuable goods, in addition to voluntary offerings.

⁷ All the nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until his country’s time also comes, and then many nations and great kings will use him as a slave.

⁴ But the seventh year is to be a Sabbath of rest for the land—a Sabbath for the LORD. You are not to plant your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵ You are not to gather what grows from the spilled kernels of your crops. You are not to pick the grapes of your untrimmed vines. Let it be a year of Sabbath for the land. ⁶ You may take the Sabbath produce of the land for your food—you, your male and maid servants, your hired laborers, and the resident alien with you.

³⁴ Then the land will finally be pleased with its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time, the land will rest and take its Sabbaths. ³⁵ As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest that it will not have had during your Sabbaths when you were living in it.

⁴³ They will leave the land so it can rest while it lies desolate without them. That’s when they’ll receive the punishment of their iniquity, because indeed they will have rejected my ordinances and despised my statutes.

¹¹ This entire land will be a desolation and a waste, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
¹² ‘Then when the seventy years have passed, I’ll judge the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the LORD, I’ll judge the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity and I’ll make it a desolation forever.

⁶ then I’ll make this house like Shiloh and make this city into a curse to all the nations of the earth.’”’”
⁷ Jeremiah Threatened with DeathThe priests, the prophets, and all the people listened as Jeremiah spoke these words at the LORD’s Temple.

¹² Zedekiah Told to Submit to BabylonI spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah using words like these: “Bring your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people, and you will live! ¹³ Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by plague as the LORD has decreed about the nation that does not serve the king of Babylon?

¹⁰ “For this is what the LORD says: ‘When Babylon’s seventy years are completed, I’ll take note of you and will fulfill my good promises to you by bringing you back to this place.

² in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, noted in the Scripture the total years that were assigned by the message from the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem: 70 years.

⁴ Don’t be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed: ‘This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “It’s time to turn from your evil lifestyles and from your evil actions,” ‘but they would neither listen nor pay attention to me,’” declares the LORD.’ ⁵ “Your ancestors—where are they? And the prophets—do they live forever? ⁶ But my words and my statutes that I gave as commands to my servants the prophets—did they not overwhelm your ancestors? And they returned to me: ‘The LORD of the Heavenly Armies acted toward us just as he planned to do—in keeping with our lifestyles and in keeping with our actions.’”

¹² And the angel of the LORD replied, “LORD of the Heavenly Armies, how long will it be until you show mercy to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, with whom you have been angry for these past seventy years?”

¹⁹ Now let your majesty listen to the words of his servant. If the LORD incited you against me, then may he accept an offering. But if it is people, may they be cursed in the LORD’s presence, because they have driven me out today from sharing in the inheritance of the LORD by saying, ‘Go serve other gods.’

¹⁴ Solomon’s EnemiesAfter this, the LORD allowed Hadad the Edomite to oppose Solomon. He was part of the royal line of Edom.

²³ God also raised up Eliada’s son Rezon, who had escaped from his master King Hadadezer of Zobah.

²⁶ So the God of Israel incited King Pul of Assyria (also known as King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria), who took them prisoner and brought the descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to Halah, Habor, Hara, and to the Gozan River, where they remain to this day.

¹⁶ The LORD also provoked the attitude of the Philistines and the Arabs who bordered the Ethiopians against Jehoram,

⁹ A public notice was sent throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in the tax that Moses the servant of the LORD had levied on Israel when they were in the wilderness.

⁵ so they published a decree that was circulated throughout Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan that they are to come celebrate the Passover to the LORD God of Israel in Jerusalem. The Passover had not been celebrated in great numbers as was being prescribed by the decree.

²¹ All of this fulfilled what the LORD had predicted through Jeremiah. And so the land enjoyed its Sabbaths, and the length of the land’s desolation lasted until a 70-year long Sabbath had been completed.

¹ An Edict to Rebuild the Temple
During the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in fulfillment of the message from the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD prompted Cyrus, king of Persia, to make this proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, which was also released in written form: ² AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM CYRUS, KING OF PERSIA All of the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the LORD God of Heaven, and he specifically charged me to build a temple for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ³ Therefore, who among the LORD’s people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem of Judah to rebuild the Temple of the LORD God of Israel, the God of Jerusalem.

⁵ In response, the heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and descendants of Levi, and all those who had been prompted by God, prepared to travel to rebuild the Temple of the LORD, which was in Jerusalem.

³ I myself have commanded my consecrated ones; I have also summoned my warriors, those who rejoice in my triumph, to carry out my angry judgments. ⁴ “Listen! There’s a noise on the mountains like that of a great multitude! Listen! There’s an uproar among the kingdoms, like that of nations massing together! The LORD of the Heavenly Armies is mustering an army for battle. ⁵ They’re coming from a faraway land, from the distant horizon— the LORD and the weapons of his anger— to destroy the entire land.”

¹⁷ Babylon FallsWatch out! I’m stirring up the Medes against them, who care nothing for silver and take no delight in gold. ¹⁸ Their bows will dash the young men to pieces; they’ll show no pity on those not yet born, and their eyes will not spare children.

²⁸ who says about Cyrus, “He’s my shepherd, and he’ll carry out everything that I please: He’ll say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,’ and of my Temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid again.’”’”

¹² ‘Then when the seventy years have passed, I’ll judge the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the LORD, I’ll judge the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity and I’ll make it a desolation forever.

¹⁴ Indeed many nations and great kings will make slaves even of them, and I’ll repay them according to their deeds, according to what they have done.’”

⁴² “Indeed, this is what the LORD says: ‘Just as I’m bringing all this great disaster on this people, so I’ll bring on them all the good things that I’m promising concerning them. ⁴³ Fields will be bought in this land about which you will say, “It is a desolate place without people or animals. It is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.” ⁴⁴ People will buy fields for money, sign deeds, seal them, and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin, in the areas around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah, the towns of the hill country, the towns of the Shephelah, and the towns of the Negev, for I’ll restore their fortunes,’ declares the LORD.”

¹⁰ “This is what the LORD says: ‘You are saying about this place, “It is a ruin without people and without animals.” Yet in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem which are desolate places without inhabitants and without animals, there will again be heard ¹¹ the sounds of rejoicing and gladness, the sounds of the bridegroom and the bride, and the sounds of those saying, “Give thanks to the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, for the LORD is good, and his gracious love lasts forever,”
as they bring thanksgiving offerings to the LORD’s Temple. For I’ll restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first,’ declares the LORD.
¹² “This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: ‘In this place that is now a ruin without people or animals, and in all its towns there will again be pasture for shepherds resting their flocks. ¹³ In the towns of the hill country, in the towns of the Shephelah, in the towns of the Negev, in the territory of Benjamin, in the areas around Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them,’ says the LORD.”
¹⁴ The Righteous Branch and the Davidic Covenant“‘Look, the time is coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I’ll fulfill the good promise that I spoke concerning the house of Israel and Judah.

¹ Daniel’s VisionIn the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel (also known as Belteshazzar). The message was trustworthy and concerned a great conflict. He understood it and had insight concerning the vision.

¹⁴ Then the LORD revitalized the spirit of Shealtiel’s son Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, the spirit of Jehozadak’s son Joshua the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people, so they came and began to work on the house of their God, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

²³ Let us continue to hold firmly to the hope that we confess without wavering, for the one who made the promise is faithful.

¹⁶ gold, silver, bronze, and iron. So begin the work, and may the LORD be with you.”

⁵ and for all the work to be undertaken by skilled artists, gold for what is to be made of gold, and silver for what is to be made of silver. Who then, will be dedicating the productivity of his own work to the LORD today?”

¹³ I hereby decree that all of the people of Israel— along with their priests and descendants of Levi in my kingdom—who are determined to return to Jerusalem with you may do so.

⁵ Don’t use your strength to fight heaven or speak from stubborn arrogance.” ⁶ For exaltation comes not from the east, the west, or the wilderness, ⁷ since God is the judge. This one he will debase or that one he will exalt.

²⁶ who carries out the words of his servants, and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, “It will be inhabited,” and of Judah’s cities, “They will be rebuilt,” and of her ruins, “I’ll raise them up”; ²⁷ who says to the watery deep, “Be dry— I will dry up your rivers;” ²⁸ who says about Cyrus, “He’s my shepherd, and he’ll carry out everything that I please: He’ll say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,’ and of my Temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid again.’”’”

²¹ It is God who alters the times and seasons, and he removes kings and promotes kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

³⁷ You, your majesty, king of kings—to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory,

³⁵ All who live on the earth are nothing compared to him. He does what he wishes with the heavenly armies and with those who live on earth. No one can hold back his power or say to him, ‘What did you do?’

¹⁸ Your majesty, the Most High God gave your grandfather Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty, as well as greatness, glory, and splendor.

⁶ “‘Come now! Come now! Flee from the land of the north,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I have dispersed you like the four winds of heaven,’ declares the LORD.
⁷ “‘Come now, Zion! Escape, you who are living with the residents of Babylon.

³¹ Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s LoveWhat, then, can we say about all of this? If God is for us, who can be against us?