¹And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and they made him king in place of his father in Jerusalem. ²Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he started to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for three months. ³Then the king of Egypt removed him in Jerusalem and imposed a tax on the land of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ⁴And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and he changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother and brought him to Egypt. ⁵Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he started to reign, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem, and he did what was wrong in the sight of the Lord his God. ⁶Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon campaigned against him and bound him in fetters so as to lead him to Babylon. ⁷And Nebuchadnezzar brought some of the equipment of the house of the Lord to Babylon, and he put it in his palace in Babylon. ⁸And as for the rest of the affairs of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he made, and what was found against him, they are to be seen written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place. ⁹Jehoiachin was eight years old when he started to reign, and he reigned for three months and ten days in Jerusalem, and he did what was wrong in the sight of the Lord. ¹⁰And towards the end of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent orders and had him brought to Babylon with the desirable objects of the house of the Lord, and he made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. ¹¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years. ¹²And he did what was wrong in the sight of the Lord his God, and he did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke the pronouncement of the Lord. ¹³And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God, and he was stiff-necked, and he hardened his heart against returning to the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁴Also all the senior priests and the people transgressed all the more, like all the abominations of the Gentiles, and they defiled the house of the Lord which he had sanctified in Jerusalem. ¹⁵And the Lord God of their fathers sent word to them through the intermediacy of messengers, rising early and sending word, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling. ¹⁶But they kept ridiculing God's messengers and despising his words and mocking his prophets, until the Lord's fury arose against his people to the point of there being no remedy. ¹⁷And he brought the king of the Chaldeans up against them, and he killed their young men with the sword in their temple, and he did not spare young men or virgins, old men or anyone elderly – he delivered everyone into his hand. ¹⁸And as for all the equipment of the house of God – large items and small items, and the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the treasuries of the king and his officials – he brought everything to Babylon. ¹⁹And they burnt the house of God, and they demolished the wall of Jerusalem, and they burnt all its palaces with fire, and they brought all its valuable furnishings to ruin. ²⁰And he deported the survivors of the sword to Babylon, and they became servants to him and to his sons, until the kingdom of Persia became a royal power, ²¹to fulfil the word of the Lord communicated through Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. For all the days that it was in desolation, it kept the Sabbath, fulfilling seventy years. ²²Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in fulfilling the word of the Lord by the speech of Jeremiah, the Lord aroused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he had a proclamation made throughout his kingdom, and also by a letter, saying, ²³“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the world, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you from all his people to participate? May the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.’ ”