4. Neco made Joahaz' brother Eliakim king of Judah and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Joahaz was taken to Egypt by Neco.
5. Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. He sinned against the Lord his God.
6. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia invaded Judah, captured Jehoiakim, and took him to Babylonia in chains.
7. Nebuchadnezzar carried off some of the treasures of the Temple and put them in his palace in Babylon.
8. Everything that Jehoiakim did, including his disgusting practices and the evil he committed, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.
9. Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months and ten days. He too sinned against the Lord.
10. When spring came, King Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin to Babylonia as a prisoner, and carried off the treasures of the Temple. Then Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin's uncle Zedekiah king of Judah and Jerusalem.
11. Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years.
12. He sinned against the Lord and did not listen humbly to the prophet Jeremiah, who spoke the word of the Lord.
13. Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had forced him to swear in God's name that he would be loyal. He stubbornly refused to repent and return to the Lord, the God of Israel.
14. In addition, the leaders of Judah, the priests, and the people followed the sinful example of the nations round them in worshipping idols, and so they defiled the Temple, which the Lord himself had made holy.
15. The Lord, the God of their ancestors, had continued to send prophets to warn his people, because he wanted to spare them and the Temple.