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The Blue Letter Bible

2 Kings 25 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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(2Ch 36:15–21; Jer 52:4–30 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:1

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:1 - So on January 15,[fn] during the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its walls.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:2

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:2 - Jerusalem was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah’s reign.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:3

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:3 - By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign,[fn] the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:4

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:4 - Then a section of the city wall was broken down, and all the soldiers fled. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians,[fn] 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.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:5

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:5 - But the Babylonian[fn] troops chased the king and caught him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:6

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:6 - They took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:7

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:7 - They made Zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons. Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon.
The Temple Destroyed

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:8

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:8 - On August 14 of that year,[fn] which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:9

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:9 - He burned down the Temple of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings[fn] in the city.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:10

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:10 - Then he supervised the entire Babylonian army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:11

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:11 - Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, then took as exiles the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:12

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:12 - But the captain of the guard allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind in Judah to care for the vineyards and fields.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:13

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:13 - The 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:14

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:14 - They also took all the ash buckets, shovels, lamp snuffers, dishes, and all the other bronze articles used for making sacrifices at the Temple.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:15

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:15 - Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, also took the incense burners and basins, and all the other articles made of pure gold or silver.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:16

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:16 - The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the Sea, 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:17

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:17 - Each of the pillars was 27 feet[fn] tall. The bronze capital on top of each pillar was 7½ feet[fn] high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:18

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:18 - Nebuzaradan, 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:19

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:19 - And from among the people still hiding in the city, he took an officer who had been in charge of the Judean army; five of the king’s personal advisers; the army commander’s chief secretary, who was in charge of recruitment; and sixty other citizens.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:20

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

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:21

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:21 - And 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.
Gedaliah Governs in Judah
(Jer 40:5—41:18 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:22

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:22 - Then King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan as governor over the people he had left in Judah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:23

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:23 - When all the army commanders and their men learned that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they went to see him at Mizpah. These included Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jezaniah[fn] son of the Maacathite, and all their men.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:24

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:24 - Gedaliah vowed to them that the Babylonian officials meant them no harm. “Don’t be afraid of them. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and all will go well for you,” he promised.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:25

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:25 - But in midautumn of that year,[fn] Ishmael son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, who was of the royal family, went to Mizpah with ten men and killed Gedaliah. He also killed all the Judeans and Babylonians who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:26

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:26 - Then all the people of Judah, from the least to the greatest, as well as the army commanders, fled in panic to Egypt, for they were afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them.
Hope for Israel’s Royal Line
(Jer 52:31–34 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:27

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:27 - In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, Evil-merodach ascended to the Babylonian throne. He was kind to[fn] Jehoiachin and released him from prison on April 2 of that year.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:28

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:28 - He spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a higher place than all the other exiled kings in Babylon.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:29

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:29 - He supplied Jehoiachin with new clothes to replace his prison garb and allowed him to dine in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 25:30

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 25:30 - So the Babylonian king gave him a regular food allowance as long as he lived.
See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NLT Footnotes
Hebrew on the tenth day of the tenth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. A number of events in 2 Kings 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.
Hebrew By the ninth day of the [fourth] month [in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign] (compare Jer 52:6 and the note there). This day was July 18, 586 B.C.; also see note on 25:1.
Or the Chaldeans; also in 25:13, 25, 26.
Hebrew the Arabah.
Or Chaldean; also in 25:10, 24.
Hebrew On the seventh day of the fifth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was August 14, 586 B.C.; also see note on 25:1.
Or destroyed the houses of all the important people.
Hebrew 18 cubits [8.1 meters].
As in parallel texts at 1 Kgs 7:16, 2 Chr 3:15, and Jer 52:22, all of which read 5 cubits [2.3 meters]; Hebrew reads 3 cubits, which is 4.5 feet or 1.4 meters.
As in parallel text at Jer 40:8; Hebrew reads Jaazaniah, a variant spelling of Jezaniah.
Hebrew in the seventh month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This month occurred within the months of October and November 586 B.C.; also see note on 25:1.
Hebrew He raised the head of.
Hebrew on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was April 2, 561 B.C.; also see note on 25:1.
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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2 Kings Chapter 25 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New International Version English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras