19. From the city he took a eunuch who was an officer over the fighting men, five men of the king’s council who were found in the city, the chief scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land who were found in the city.
20. Nebuzaradan captain of the bodyguard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
21. Then the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath.Thus he exiled Judah from their land.
22. Over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan.
23. When all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, that is, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maakathite, they and their men.
24. Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and said to them, “Do not be afraid of being the servants of the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well for you.”
25. But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal line, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah. He died along with the Judeans and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.
26. Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
27. In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Awel-Marduk king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison.
28. He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a throne above the thrones of the kings that were with him in Babylon.
29. He changed his prison garments, and he ate food continually before him all the days of his life.
30. His allowance was a regular allowance given him by the king every day, all the days of his life.