is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely repay.
57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the people in the fire, and they shall be weary. [1] [2]
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince. [3] [4]
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou shalt come to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;
62 Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. [5]
63 And it shall be, when thou hast finished reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:
64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
CHAP. 52.
Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. [6]
2 And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
3 For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it, and built forts against it on every side.
5 So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
6 And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was great in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
7 Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth from the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city on all sides:) and they went by the way of the plain.
8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
9 Then they took the king, and carried him to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him.
10 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah.
11 Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death. [7] [8] [9]
12 Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, [10] [11]
13 And burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, he burned with fire:
14 And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem on every side.
15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the rest of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.
16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for farmers.
17 Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.
18 The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass by which they ministered, they took away. [12] [13]
19 And the basins, and the firepans, and the bowls, and the caldrons, and the lampstands, and the spoons, and the cups; that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, the captain of the guard took away. [14]
20 The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the LORD: the brass of all these vessels was without weight. [15]
21 And concerning the pillars, the
- ↑ The broad...: or, The walls of broad Babylon
- ↑ broken: or, made naked
- ↑ with: or, on the behalf of
- ↑ quiet...: or, prince of Menucha, or, chief chamberlain
- ↑ desolate: Heb. desolations
- ↑ began...: Heb. reigned
- ↑ put out: Heb. blinded
- ↑ chains: or, fetters
- ↑ prison: Heb. house of the wards
- ↑ captain...: or, chief marshal: Heb. chief of the executioners, or, slaughtermen
- ↑ served: Heb. stood before
- ↑ shovels: or, instruments to remove the ashes
- ↑ bowls: or, basons
- ↑ firepans: or, censers
- ↑ the brass: Heb. their brass
