1 During Jehoiakim’s reign,tn Heb “In his days.” King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked.tn Heb “came up.” Perhaps an object (“against him”) has been accidentally omitted from the text. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 306. Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him.tn The Hebrew text has “and he turned and rebelled against him.”

2 The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets.tn Heb “he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets.”

3 Just as the Lord had announced, he rejected Judah because of all the sins which Manasseh had committed.tn Heb “Certainly according to the word of the Lord this happened against Judah, to remove [them] from his face because of the sins of Manasseh according to all which he did.”

4 Because he killed innocent people and stained Jerusalem with their blood, the Lord was unwilling to forgive them.tn Heb “and also the blood of the innocent which he shed, and he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive.”

5 The rest of the events of Jehoiakim’s reign and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jehoiakim, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”

6 He passed awaytn Heb “lay down with his fathers.” and his son Jehoiachin replaced him as king.

7 The king of Egypt did not march out from his land again, for the king of Babylon conquered all the territory that the king of Egypt had formerly controlled between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River.

8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4. His mothertn Heb “the name of his mother.” was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem.

9 He did evil in the sight oftn Heb “in the eyes of.” the Lord as his ancestors had done.

10 At that time the generalstn Heb “servants.” of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched to Jerusalem and besieged the city.tn Heb “went up [to] Jerusalem and the city entered into siege.”

11 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his generals were besieging it.

12 King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his officials, and his eunuchs surrenderedtn Heb “came out.” to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign,sn That is, the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 597 b.c. took Jehoiachintn Heb “him”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity. prisoner.

13 Nebuchadnezzartn Heb “he”; the referent (Nebuchadnezzar) has been specified in the translation for clarity. took from there all the riches in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He removed all the gold items which King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s temple, just as the Lord had warned.

14 He deported all the residents of Jerusalem, including all the officials and all the soldiers (10,000 people in all). This included all the craftsmen and those who worked with metal. No one was left except for the poorest among the people of the land.

15 He deported Jehoiachin from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with the king’s mother and wives, his eunuchs, and the high-ranking officials of the land.tn Heb “and he deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; the mother of the king and the wives of the king and his eunuchs and the mighty of the land he led into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”

16 The king of Babylon deported to Babylon all the soldiers (there were 7,000), as well as 1,000 craftsmen and metal workers. This included all the best warriors.tn Heb “the entire [group], mighty men, doers of war.”

17 The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’stn Heb “his.” uncle, king in Jehoiachin’s place. He renamed him Zedekiah.

18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem.map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4. His mothertn Heb “the name of his mother.” was Hamutal,tc Some textual witnesses support the consonantal text (Kethib) in reading “Hamital.” the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.

19 He did evil in the sight oftn Heb “in the eyes of.” the Lord, as Jehoiakim had done.tn Heb “according to all which Jehoiakim had done.”

20 What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord’s anger; he finally threw them out of his presence.tn Heb “Surely [or, ‘for’] because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah until he threw them out from upon his face.” Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.