15. Nebuzaradan commander of the guard deported some of the poorest people, the rest of the people left in the city, a few skilled workers, and those who had joined the king of Babylon.
16. But Nebuzaradan commander of the guard left some of the poor to tend the vineyards and till the land.
17. The Babylonians broke apart the bronze columns, the stands, and the bronze Sea in the Lord’s temple. They carried the bronze to Babylon.
18. They took the pots, the shovels, the wick trimmers, the sprinkling bowls, the incense dishes, and all the bronze equipment used for the temple services.
19. The commander of the guard took whatever gold or silver he could find as well: the small bowls, the fire pans, the sprinkling bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the basins, and the offering bowls.
20. There was too much bronze to be weighed: two columns, the bronze Sea and the twelve bronze bulls that held it up, and the stands, all of which Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple.
21. Each column was about twenty-seven feet high and eighteen feet around. They were hollow, but the bronze was about three inches thick.
22. Each had a capital of bronze above it that towered seven and a half feet high, and each had an ornate design of bronze pomegranates around it. The second column was the same, also with pomegranates.
23. There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides, a total of one hundred pomegranates around the ornate design.
24. The commander of the guard also took Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the deputy priest, and the three doorkeepers.