Jeremiah 39:4–13

⁴When King Zedekiah of Judah and all the fighting men saw them, they fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s garden^b through the city gate between the two walls. They left along the route to the Arabah.^{c 5}However, the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They arrested him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s king, at Riblah in the land of Hamath. The king passed sentence on him there.^d

⁶At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all Judah’s nobles. ⁷Then he blinded Zedekiah and put him in bronze chains to take him to Babylon.^{e 8}The Chaldeans next burned down the king’s palace and the people’s houses and tore down the walls of Jerusalem.^{f 9}Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards,^g deported the rest of the people to Babylon—those who had remained in the city and those deserters who had defected to him along with the rest of the people who remained. ¹⁰However, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and he gave them vineyards and fields at that time.^h

JEREMIAH FREED BY NEBUCHADNEZZAR

¹¹Speaking through Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gave orders concerning Jeremiah: ¹²“Take him and look after him. Don’t do him any harm, but do for him whatever he says.” ¹³Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, Nebushazban the chief of staff, Nergal-sharezer the chief soothsayer, and all the captains of Babylon’s king