8. The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army was scattered from him.
9. The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.
10. At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes and also slaughtered the Judean commanders.
11. Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.
12. On the tenth day of the fifth month — which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon.
13. He burned the Lord’s temple, the king’s palace, all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the nobles.
14. The whole Chaldean army with the commander of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.
15. Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported some of the poorest of the people, as well as the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.
16. But some of the poorest people of the land Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, left to be vinedressers and farmers.
17. Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars for the Lord’s temple and the water carts and the bronze reservoir that were in the Lord’s temple, and carried all the bronze to Babylon.
18. They took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.
19. The commander of the guards took away the bowls, firepans, sprinkling basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and drink offering bowls — whatever was gold or silver.
20. As for the two pillars, the one reservoir, and the 12 bronze bulls under the water carts that King Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.
21. One pillar was 27 feet tall, had a circumference of 18 feet, was hollow — four fingers thick —