4So on January 15,52:4a Hebrew on the tenth day of the tenth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. A number of events in Jeremiah can be cross-checked with dates in surviving Babylonian records and related accurately to our modern calendar. This day was January 15, 588 b.c. during the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar52:4b Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar; also in 52:12, 28, 29, 30. of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its walls.

5Jerusalem was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah’s reign.

6By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign,52:6 Hebrew By the ninth day of the fourth month [in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign]. This day was July 18, 586 b.c.; also see note on 52:4a. the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone.

7Then a section of the city wall was broken down, and all the soldiers fled. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians,52:7a Or the Chaldeans; similarly in 52:8, 17. they waited for nightfall. Then they slipped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley.52:7b Hebrew the Arabah.

8But the Babylonian troops chased King Zedekiah and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered.

9They captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king of Babylon pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah.

10The king of Babylon made Zedekiah watch as he slaughtered his sons. He also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah.

11Then he gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in bronze chains, and the king of Babylon led him away to Babylon. Zedekiah remained there in prison until the day of his death.

17The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars in front of the Lord’s Temple, the bronze water carts, and the great bronze basin called the Sea, and they carried all the bronze away to Babylon.

18They also took all the ash buckets, shovels, lamp snuffers, basins, dishes, and all the other bronze articles used for making sacrifices at the Temple.

19The captain of the guard also took the small bowls, incense burners, basins, pots, lampstands, ladles, bowls used for liquid offerings, and all the other articles made of pure gold or silver.

20The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the Sea with the twelve bronze oxen beneath it, and the water carts was too great to be measured. These things had been made for the Lord’s Temple in the days of King Solomon.

21Each of the pillars was 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference.52:21a Hebrew 18 cubits [8.3 meters] tall and 12 cubits [5.5 meters] in circumference. They were hollow, with walls 3 inches thick.52:21b Hebrew 4 fingers thick [8 centimeters].

22The bronze capital on top of each pillar was 7-1/2 feet52:22 Hebrew 5 cubits [2.3 meters]. high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around.

23There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and a total of 100 pomegranates on the network around the top.

24Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took with him as prisoners Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three chief gatekeepers.

25And from among the people still hiding in the city, he took an officer who had been in charge of the Judean army; seven of the king’s personal advisers; the army commander’s chief secretary, who was in charge of recruitment; and sixty other citizens.

26Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them all to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

27And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them all put to death. So the people of Judah were sent into exile from their land.

28The number of captives taken to Babylon in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign52:28 This exile in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 597 b.c. was 3,023.

29Then in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year52:29 This exile in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 586 b.c. he took 832 more.

30In Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year52:30 This exile in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 581 b.c. he sent Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who took 745 more—a total of 4,600 captives in all.