2 Kings 25:5-24

the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered.  The Chaldeans seized the king  and brought him up to the king of Babylon  at Riblah,  and they passed sentence on him. They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes. Finally, the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him in bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.  On  the seventh day of the fifth month — which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.  He burned the Lord’s temple,  the king’s palace,  and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down  all the great houses. The whole Chaldean army with the captain of the guards tore down the walls  surrounding Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported the rest of the people who remained in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population.  But the captain of the guards left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.  Now  the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars  of the Lord’s temple, the water carts, and the bronze basin,  , which were in the Lord’s temple, and carried the bronze to Babylon.  They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the priests’ service.  The captain of the guards took away the firepans and sprinkling basins — whatever was gold or silver.  As for the two pillars, the one basin, and the water carts that Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.  One pillar was twenty-seven feet  tall and had a bronze capital on top of it. The capital, encircled by a grating and pomegranates of bronze, stood five feet  high. The second pillar was the same, with its own grating.  The captain of the guards  also took away Seraiah  the chief priest, Zephaniah  the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers. From the city he took a court official  who had been appointed over the warriors; five trusted royal aides  , found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and sixty men from the common people  who were found within the city. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.  The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from its land.  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Gedaliah  son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, over the rest of the people he left in the land of Judah.  When all the commanders of the armies — they and their men — heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.  The commanders included Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite — they and their men.  Gedaliah swore an oath to them and their men, assuring them, “Don’t be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well for you.”