1Therefore the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and ordained him king for his father in Jerusalem.

2Jehoahaz was of three and twenty years, when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.

3And when the king of Egypt had come to Jerusalem, he removed him, and he condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver and in a talent of gold.

4And he ordained for him Eliakim, his brother, king upon Judah and Jerusalem; and he turned his name, and called him Jehoiakim. And he took that Jehoahaz with himself, and he brought him into Egypt.

5Jehoiakim was of five and twenty years, when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and he did evil before the Lord his God.

6And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Chaldees, went up against this Jehoi-akim, and he led him bound with chains into Babylon.

7To which Babylon he translated or brought over also the vessels of the house of the Lord, and he set those [or put them] in his temple.

8Soothly the residue of [the] words of Jehoiakim, and of his abominations which he wrought, and which were found in him, be contained in the book of [the] kings of Israel and of Judah. And Jehoiachin, his son, reigned for him.

9Jehoiachin was of eighteen years, when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

10And when the circle of the year was turned about, Nebuchadnezzar the king sent men, which also brought him into Babylon, when the most precious vessels of the house of the Lord were borne out together. And Nebuchadnezzar ordained Zedekiah, his father’s brother, king upon Judah and Jerusalem.

11Zedekiah was of one and twenty years, when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.

12And he did evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and he was not ashamed of the face of Jeremy, the prophet, that spake to him by the mouth of the Lord.

13Also he went [away] from king Nebuchadnezzar, which had made him to swear by God, that is, to promise steadfastly to be true to him; and Zedekiah made hard his noll and his heart, that he would not turn again to the Lord God of Israel.

14But also all the princes of priests, and the people, trespassed wickedly, by all the abominations of heathen men; and they defouled the house of the Lord, which he had hallowed to himself in Jerusalem.

15And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by the hand of his messengers, and the Lord rose up by night, and he admonished them each day; for-thy that he would spare his people, and his dwelling place.

16And they mocked the messengers of God, and they despised his words, and they scorned his prophets; till the great vengeance of the Lord ascended [or went up] upon his people, and no cure, or healing, were to them.

17And he brought on them the king of Chaldees; and [he] killed the young men of them by sword in the house of [the] saintuary; he had not mercy of a young man, and of a virgin, and of an eld [or old] man, and soothly neither of a man nigh the death for eldness, but he betook all into the hand of that king of Chaldees.

18And he translated or brought over into Babylon all the vessels of the house of the Lord, both the greater and the lesser vessels, and the treasures of the temple, and of the king of Judah, and of the princes thereof.

19And enemies burnt the house of the Lord; and they destroyed the wall of Jerusalem; they burnt all the towers; and they destroyed whatever thing was precious therein.

20If any man escaped the sword, he was led into Babylon, and served the king and his sons; this subjection or thralldom continued upon the men of Judah, till the king of Persia reigned,

21and till the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremy was fulfilled, and till the land hallowed his sabbaths. Soothly Judah in all the days of desolation, or of the destroying, or forsaking thereof, it made sabbath, till that seventy years were fulfilled.

22Forsooth in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord, which he had spoken by the mouth of Jeremy, the Lord raised the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that commanded to be preached in all his realm, yea, by writing, and said,

23I Cyrus, king of Persia, saith these things, The Lord God of heaven hath given to me all the realms of [the] earth, and he commanded to me, that I should build to him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who of you is in all his people? the Lord his God be with him, and go he up thither.