15. The commander of the guard took the fire pans and the sprinkling bowls, which were made of pure gold and pure silver.
16. The bronze in all these objects—the two pillars, the Sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple—was too heavy to weigh.
17. Each pillar was twenty-seven feet high. The bronze capital on top of the first pillar was four and a half feet high. Decorative lattices and pomegranates, all made from bronze, were around the capital. And the second pillar was decorated with lattices just like the first.
18. The commander of the guard also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three doorkeepers.
19. Of those still left in the city, Nebuzaradan took away an officer who was in charge of the army and five royal advisors who were discovered in the city. He also took away the secretary of the officer responsible for drafting the land’s people to fight, as well as sixty people who were discovered in the city.
20. Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard took all of these people and brought them to the Babylonian king at Riblah.
21. The king of Babylon struck them down, killing them in Riblah in the land of Hamath.So Judah was exiled from its land.
22. Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar put Gedaliah, Ahikam’s son and Shaphan’s grandson, in charge of the people he had left behind in the land of Judah.
23. All the army officers and their soldiers heard that the Babylonian king had appointed Gedaliah as governor, so they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers were Ishmael, Nethaniah’s son; Johanan, Kareah’s son; Seraiah, Tanhumeth’s son who was a Netophathite; and Jaazaniah, Maacathite’s son.
24. Gedaliah made a solemn pledge to them and their soldiers, telling them, "Don’t be afraid of the Chaldean officials. Stay in the land and serve the Babylonian king, and things will go well for you."
25. But in the seventh month, Ishmael, Nethaniah’s son and Elishama’s grandson, who was from the royal family, came with ten soldiers, and they struck Gedaliah, and he died. They also killed the Judeans and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.
26. Then all the people, young and old, along with the army officers, departed for Egypt because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.