2 Chronicles Chapter 36    

¹Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and made him king in his father’s place in Jerusalem.
 

²Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
  ³The king of Egypt dethroned him in Jerusalem and imposed a fine on the land of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold.
 

⁴The king of Egypt made Eliakim, the brother of Jehoahaz king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Neco took Joahaz^a his brother and carried him to Egypt.
 

⁵Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and he did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh his God.
  ⁶Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against him and bound him in bronze chains to carry him to Babylon.
  ⁷Nebuchadnezzar also carried off the articles of the house of Yahweh to Babylon and put them in his palace in Babylon.
 

⁸Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations that he did, and what was found against him, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.
 

⁹Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem, and he did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh.
  ¹⁰At the beginning of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon with the valuable articles of the house of Yahweh, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.
 

¹¹Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.
  ¹²And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh his God; he did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke from the mouth of Yahweh.
  ¹³He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God, and he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh the God of Israel.
  ¹⁴Likewise, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, committing all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of Yahweh that he had made holy in Jerusalem.
 

¹⁵Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending them again and again, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place:
  ¹⁶but they kept ridiculing the messengers of God and despising his words, and mocking his prophets until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people until there was no remedy.
  ¹⁷So he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no mercy on young man or virgin, old man or infirm. He gave them all into his hand.
  ¹⁸All the articles of God’s house, large and small, and the treasures of the house of Yahweh and the treasures of the king and of his officials, he brought everything to Babylon.
  ¹⁹They burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles.
 

²⁰And he exiled to Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became slaves to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia,
  ²¹to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had made up for its Sabbaths. As long as it lay desolate it kept the Sabbath to fulfill 70 years.
 

²²Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to accomplish the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing, saying,
  ²³ “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says, ‘Yahweh the God of heaven has given all the kingdoms of the earth to me, and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem that is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people? Yahweh his God is with him, so let him go up.’”