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.
27. In the year that Awil-merodach became king of Babylon, he released Judah’s King Jehoiachin from prison. This happened in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month.
28. Awil-merodach spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and seated him above the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
29. So Jehoiachin took off his prisoner clothes and ate regularly in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.
30. At the king’s command, a regular food allowance was given to him every day for the rest of his life.