Jeremiah 52:1 - Prayer Tents

52Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah. Her hometown was Libnah.H6667H259H6242H8141H1121H4427H4427H259H6240H8141H3389H517H8034H2537H1323H3414H3841 2As far as GOD was concerned, Zedekiah was just one more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim.H6213H7451H5869H3068H3079H6213 3The source of all this doom to Jerusalem and Judah was GOD's anger. GOD turned his back on them as an act of judgment. Zedekiah revolted against the king of Babylon.H5921H639H3068H3389H3063H7993H6440H6667H4775H4428H894 4Nebuchadnezzar set out for Jerusalem with a full army. He set up camp and sealed off the city by building siege mounds around it.H8671H8141H4427H6224H2320H6218H2320H5019H4428H894H935H2428H3389H2583H1129H1785H5439 5He arrived on the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah's reign. The city was under siege for nineteen months (until the eleventh year of Zedekiah).H935H5892H4692H6249H6240H8141H4428H6667 6By the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so bad that there wasn't so much as a crumb of bread for anyone.H7243H2320H8672H2320H7458H2388H5892H3899H5971H776 7Then the Babylonians broke through the city walls. Under cover of the night darkness, the entire Judean army fled through an opening in the wall (it was the gate between the two walls above the King's Garden). They slipped through the lines of the Babylonians who surrounded the city and headed for the Jordan into the Arabah Valley,H5892H1234H582H4421H1272H3318H5892H3915H1870H8179H2346H4428H1588H3778H5892H5439H3212H1870H6160 8but the Babylonians were in full pursuit. They caught up with them in the Plains of Jericho. But by then Zedekiah's army had deserted and was scattered.H2428H3778H7291H310H4428H5381H6667H6160H3405H2428H6327 9The Babylonians captured Zedekiah and marched him off to the king of Babylon at Riblah in Hamath, who tried and sentenced him on the spot.H8610H4428H5927H4428H894H7247H776H2574H1696H4941 10The king of Babylon then killed Zedekiah's sons right before his eyes. The summary murder of his sons was the last thing Zedekiah saw, for they then blinded him. The king of Babylon followed that up by killing all the officials of Judah.H4428H894H7819H1121H6667H5869H7819H8269H3063H7247 11Securely handcuffed, Zedekiah was hauled off to Babylon. The king of Babylon threw him in prison, where he stayed until the day he died.H5786H5869H6667H4428H894H631H5178H935H894H5414H1004H6486H3117H4194 12In the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon on the seventh day of the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon's chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem.H2549H2320H6218H2320H8672H6240H8141H8141H5019H4428H894H935H5018H7227H2876H5975H6440H4428H894H3389 13He burned the Temple of GOD to the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city. He burned the whole place down.H8313H1004H3068H4428H1004H1004H3389H1004H1419H8313H784 14He put the Babylonian troops he had with him to work knocking down the city walls.H2428H3778H7227H2876H5422H2346H3389H5439 15Finally, he rounded up everyone left in the city, including those who had earlier deserted to the king of Babylon, and took them off into exile.H5018H7227H2876H1540H1803H5971H3499H5971H7604H5892H5307H5307H4428H894H3499H527 16He left a few poor dirt farmers behind to tend the vineyards and what was left of the fields.H5018H7227H2876H7604H1803H776H3755H3009 17The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the bronze washstands, and the huge bronze basin (the Sea) that were in the Temple of GOD, and hauled the bronze off to Babylon.H5982H5178H1004H3068H4350H5178H3220H1004H3068H3778H7665H5375H5178H894 18They also took the various bronze-crafted liturgical accessories, as well as the gold and silver censers and sprinkling bowls, used in the services of Temple worship.H5518H3257H4212H4219H3709H3627H5178H8334H3947 19The king's deputy didn't miss a thing. He took every scrap of precious metal he could find.H5592H4289H4219H5518H4501H3709H4518H2091H2091H3701H3701H3947H7227H2876H3947 20The amount of bronze they got from the two pillars, the Sea, the twelve bronze bulls that supported the Sea, and the ten washstands that Solomon had made for the Temple of GOD was enormous. They couldn't weigh it all!H8147H5982H259H3220H8147H6240H5178H1241H4350H4428H8010H6213H1004H3068H5178H3627H4948 21Each pillar stood twenty-seven feet high with a circumference of eighteen feet. The pillars were hollow, the bronze a little less than an inch thick.H5982H6967H259H5982H8083H6240H520H2339H8147H6240H520H5437H5672H702H676H5014 22Each pillar was topped with an ornate capital of bronze pomegranates and filigree, which added another seven and a half feet to its height.H3805H5178H6967H259H3805H2568H520H7639H7416H3805H5439H5178H8145H5982H7416 23There were ninety-six pomegranates evenly spaced—in all, a hundred pomegranates worked into the filigree.H8673H8337H7416H7307H7416H7639H3967H5439 24The king's deputy took a number of special prisoners: Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the associate priest, three wardens,H7227H2876H3947H8304H7218H3548H6846H4932H3548H7969H8104H5592 25the chief remaining army officer, seven of the king's counselors who happened to be in the city, the chief recruiting officer for the army, and sixty men of standing from among the people who were still there.H3947H5892H259H5631H6496H582H4421H7651H582H7200H4428H6440H4672H5892H8269H5608H6635H6633H5971H776H8346H376H5971H776H4672H8432H5892 26Nebuzaradan the king's deputy marched them all off to the king of Babylon at Riblah.H5018H7227H2876H3947H3212H4428H894H7247 27And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon killed the lot of them in cold blood. Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land.H4428H894H5221H4191H7247H127H2574H3063H1540H776 283,023 men of Judah were taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar in the seventh year of his reign.H5971H5019H1540H7651H8141H7969H505H3064H7969H6242 29832 from Jerusalem were taken in the eighteenth year of his reign.H8083H6240H8141H5019H1540H3389H8083H3967H7970H8147H5315 30745 men from Judah were taken off by Nebuzaradan, the king's chief deputy, in Nebuchadnezzar's twenty-third year. The total number of exiles was 4,600.H7969H6242H8141H5019H5018H7227H2876H1540H3064H7651H3967H705H2568H5315H5315H702H505H8337H3967 31When Jehoiachin king of Judah had been in exile for thirty-seven years, Evil-Merodach became king in Babylon and let Jehoiachin out of prison. This release took place on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month.H7651H7970H8141H1546H3078H4428H3063H8147H6240H2320H2568H6242H2320H192H4428H894H8141H4438H5375H7218H3078H4428H3063H3318H1004H3628 32The king treated him most courteously and gave him preferential treatment beyond anything experienced by the political prisoners held in Babylon.H1696H2896H5414H3678H4605H3678H4428H894 33Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and from then on ate his meals in company with the king.H8138H3608H899H8548H398H3899H6440H3117H2416 34The king provided everything he needed to live comfortably for the rest of his life.H737H8548H737H5414H4428H894H3117H3117H1697H3117H4194H3117H2416