2 Chronicles 36:14–20

¹⁴All the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, imitating all the detestable practices of the nations, and they defiled the Lord’s temple that he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM

¹⁵But the Lord, the God of their ancestors sent word against them by the hand of his messengers, sending them time and time again,^x for he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. ¹⁶But they kept ridiculing God’s messengers,^y despising his words,^z and scoffing at his prophets, until the Lord’s wrath was so stirred up against his people that there was no remedy.^{aa 17}So he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans,^ab who killed their fit young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young men or young women, elderly or aged; he handed them all over to him. ¹⁸He took everything to Babylon—all the articles of God’s temple, large and small, the treasures of the Lord’s temple, and the treasures of the king and his officials. ¹⁹Then the Chaldeans burned God’s temple.^a They tore down Jerusalem’s wall, burned all its palaces, and destroyed all its valuable articles.

²⁰He deported those who escaped from the sword to Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the rise of the Persian^A kingdom.^b