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Today's Bible Reading :: 2 Kings 23 - 25 (ESV)

2 Kings 23Listen to the passage

2 Kings 24Listen to the passage

2 Kings 25Listen to the passage

2 Kings 23

Josiah’s Reforms

(2Ch 34:29—35:19 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:1

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:1 - Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:2

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:2 - And the king went up to the house of the LORD, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:3

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:3 - And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:4

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:4 - And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:5

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:5 - And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:6

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:6 - And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:7

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:7 - And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:8

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:8 - And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the gate of the city.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:9

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:9 - However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:10

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:10 - And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:11

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:11 - And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts.[fn] And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:12

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:12 - And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, he pulled down and broke in pieces[fn] and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:13

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:13 - And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:14

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:14 - And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:15

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:15 - Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned,[fn] reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:16

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:16 - And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the LORD that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:17

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:17 - Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted[fn] these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:18

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:18 - And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:19

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:19 - And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the LORD to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:20

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:20 - And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Josiah Restores the Passover

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:21

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:21 - And the king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:22

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:22 - For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:23

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:23 - But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:24

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:24 - Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:25

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:25 - Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:26

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:26 - Still the LORD did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:27

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:27 - And the LORD said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”

Josiah’s Death in Battle

(2Ch 35:20—36:1 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:28

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:28 - Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:29

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:29 - In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo, as soon as he saw him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:30

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:30 - And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s place.

Jehoahaz’s Reign and Captivity

(2Ch 36:1–4 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:31

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:31 - Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:32

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:32 - And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:33

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:33 - And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents[fn] of silver and a talent of gold.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:34

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:34 - And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there.
(2Ch 36:5–8 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:35

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:35 - And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

Jehoiakim Reigns in Judah

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:36

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:36 - Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 23:37

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 23:37 - And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
ESV Footnotes
Hebrew might cause his son or daughter to pass through the fire for Molech
The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
Hebrew pieces from there
Septuagint broke in pieces its stones
Hebrew called
A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms

2 Kings 24

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:1

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:1 - In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:2

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:2 - And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servants the prophets.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:3

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:3 - Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done,

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:4

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:4 - and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:5

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:5 - Now the rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:6

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:6 - So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:7

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:7 - And the king of Egypt did not come again out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates.

Jehoiachin Reigns in Judah

(2Ch 36:9, 10 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:8

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:8 - Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:9

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:9 - And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done.

Jerusalem Captured

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:10

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:10 - At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:11

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:11 - And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it,

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:12

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:12 - and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants and his officials and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:13

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:13 - and carried off all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the LORD, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the LORD had foretold.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:14

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:14 - He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained, except the poorest people of the land.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:15

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:15 - And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:16

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:16 - And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, 7,000, and the craftsmen and the metal workers, 1,000, all of them strong and fit for war.
(2Ch 36:11–14; Jer 52:1–3 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:17

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:17 - And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

Zedekiah Reigns in Judah

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:18

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:18 - Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:19

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:19 - And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 24:20

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 24:20 - For because of the anger of the LORD it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

2 Kings 25

Fall and Captivity of Judah

(2Ch 36:15–21; Jer 52:4–30 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:1

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:1 - And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:2

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:2 - So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:3

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:3 - On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:4

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:4 - Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:5

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:5 - But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:6

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:6 - Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:7

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:7 - They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:8

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:8 - In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:9

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:9 - And he burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:10

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:10 - And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:11

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:11 - And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:12

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:12 - But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:13

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:13 - And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the LORD, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried the bronze to Babylon.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:14

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:14 - And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service,

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:15

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:15 - the fire pans also and the bowls. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:16

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:16 - As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:17

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:17 - The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits,[fn] and on it was a capital of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits. A latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capital. And the second pillar had the same, with the latticework.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:18

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:18 - And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold;

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:19

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:19 - and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and five men of the king’s council who were found in the city; and the secretary of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the city.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:20

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:20 - And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:21

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:21 - And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.

Gedaliah Made Governor of Judah

(Jer 40:5—41:18 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:22

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:22 - And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, governor.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:23

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:23 - Now when all the captains and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:24

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:24 - And Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid because of the Chaldean officials. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:25

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:25 - But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and put him to death along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:26

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:26 - Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison

(Jer 52:31–34 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:27

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:27 - And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed[fn] Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:28

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:28 - And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:29

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:29 - So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table,

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:30

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:30 - and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, as long as he lived.
See the ESV Preface
ESV Footnotes
A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
Hebrew reign, lifted up the head of
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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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