1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father’s stead in Jerusalem.
2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
3 And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem and condemned the land in one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim, his brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz, his brother, and carried him to Egypt.
5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God.
6 And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against him and bound him with fetters of brass; he carried him to Babylon.
7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his temple at Babylon.
8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations which he did and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah; and Jehoiachin, his son, reigned in his stead.
9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem; and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
10 And when the year was expired, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and caused him to be brought to Babylon with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord and made Zedekiah, his brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem.
11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
12 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah, the prophet, who spoke unto him from the mouth of the Lord.
13 He rebelled, likewise, against King Nebuchadnezzar, unto whom he had sworn by God; but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel.
14 Moreover, all the princes of the priests and the people increased the rebellion, rebelling according to all the abominations of the Gentiles and polluting the house of the Lord which he had sanctified in Jerusalem.
15 And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by the hand of his messengers, rising up early, and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.
16 But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, and there was no remedy.
17 Therefore, he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age; he gave them all into his hands.
18 Likewise, all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon.
19 And they burnt the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burnt all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its desirable vessels.
20 And those that escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; where they were slaves to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia,
21 to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had fulfilled her sabbaths; for all the time of her desolation she rested until the seventy years were fulfilled.
22 But in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying,
23 Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord God of the heavens has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? Let the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.