5. The Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah and caught up with him in the plain of Jericho. His entire army had deserted him.
6. The Babylonians captured the king, brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and passed sentence on him.
7. They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons as he watched, and then they blinded Zedekiah. They put him in bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.
8. On the seventh day of the fifth month of Nebuchadnezzar’s nineteenth year as king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, who was the captain of the guard and an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
9. He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem. Every important building was burned down.
10. The entire Babylonian army that was with the captain of the guard tore down the walls around Jerusalem.
11. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, captured the few people left in the city, those who surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population.
12. The captain of the guard left some of the poorest people in the land to work in the vineyards and on the farms.
13. The Babylonians broke apart the bronze pillars of the Lord’s temple, the stands, and the bronze pool in the Lord’s temple. They shipped the bronze to Babylon.
14. They took the pots, shovels, snuffers, dishes, and all the bronze utensils used in the temple service.
15. The captain of the guard took all of the incense burners and bowls that were made of gold or silver.
16. The bronze from the two pillars, the pool, and the stands that Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple couldn’t be weighed.
17. One pillar was 27 feet high and had a bronze capital on it that was 4½ feet high. The filigree and the pomegranates around the capital were all made of bronze. The second pillar and its filigree were the same.
18. The captain of the guard took the chief priest Seraiah, the second priest Zephaniah, and the 3 doorkeepers.
19. From the city he also took an army commander, 5 men who had access to the king whom he found in the city, the scribe who was in charge of the militia, and 60 of the common people whom he found in the city.