Rewind and Recap: Zedekiah's Defeat
- This chapter begins by criticizing King Zedekiah: he ruled for eleven years, was the son of a woman named Hamutal, and did what was evil in God's eyes, like his predecessor Jehoiakim.
- During Zedekiah's reign, the Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar besiege Jerusalem from the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign to the eleventh.
- At one point, everyone in Jerusalem is out of food: they're all starving.
- Eventually, the Babylonians take the city. Zedekiah and the soldiers flee towards Arabah but are finally captured.
It All Falls Down
- Nebuchadnezzar orders Zedekiah's sons killed in front of him and orders that Zedekiah be blinded and led into imprisonment in Babylon.
- The captain of the Babylonian guard, Nebuzaradan, burns down God's temple, destroys all the important houses in the city, breaks down the walls, and then sends everyone into exile except for the poorest people.
- The Babylonians totally raid the temple, stealing all the vessels, pots, shovels, bronze pillars with pomegranates on them, ladles, CDs of King David playing the harp, and other important Temple stuff.
- The Babylonians kill the chief priest Seraiah, the second priest Zephaniah, the three guardians of the threshold, and a lot of other important people.
- Nebuchadnezzar gradually takes more and more people into exile until eventually four thousand six hundred Judeans are exiled.
- But on a brighter note, a later Babylonian king, Evil-merodach, lets the exiled King Jehoiachin (Coniah) out of prison. He's allowed to eat at Evil-merodach's table, and he receives a regular daily allowance up until the day he dies.
- And that's all they wrote.