2 Kings 25:8–20

Jerusalem Is Sacked and the Temple Burned

⁸In the fifth month, on the seventh of the month, that is, the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, a commander of the imperial guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹He burned the temple of Yahweh, the palace of the king, and all of the houses of Jerusalem; every large house he burned with fire. ¹⁰And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the commander of the imperial guard tore down the walls of Jerusalem all around. ¹¹The remainder of the people left in the city, the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the remainder of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard deported.

¹²But the poor of the land the commander of the imperial guard left for the vineyards and for tilling.

Plunder Taken by the Chaldeans

¹³The bronze pillars that were in the temple^c of Yahweh, and the water carts, and the bronze sea that was in the temple^d of Yahweh, the Chaldeans broke into pieces and carried their bronze to Babylon. ¹⁴The pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the dishes, and the vessels of bronze with which they served there, they took. ¹⁵The firepans and the basins, whatever was gold, the commander of the imperial guard took for the gold and whatever was silver, for the silver. ¹⁶The two pillars, the one sea, and the water cart that Solomon had made for the temple^e of Yahweh, there was no weighing to the bronze of all of these vessels. ¹⁷The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; a bronze capital was on it, with the height of the capital being three cubits. The latticework and pomegranates on the capital all around were bronze, and likewise on the latticework for the second pillar.

¹⁸Then the commander of the imperial guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and three of the threshold keepers. ¹⁹From the city he took one court official who was chief officer over the men of war, five men from the king’s council^f who were found in the city, the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land being found in the city. ²⁰Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.