17. Each pillar was about twenty-seven feet high. The bronze capital on top of the pillar was about four and one-half feet high. It was decorated with a net design and bronze pomegranates all around it. The other pillar also had a net design and was like the first pillar.
18. The commander of the guards took some prisoners—Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three doorkeepers.
19. Of the people who were still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, as well as five people who advised the king. He took the royal secretary who selected people for the army and sixty other men who were in the city.
20. Nebuzaradan, the commander, took all these people and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
21. There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them killed. So the people of Judah were led away from their country as captives.
22. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon left some people in the land of Judah. He appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as governor.
23. The army captains and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, so they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. They were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite, and their men.
24. Then Gedaliah promised these army captains and their men, “Don’t be afraid of the Babylonian officers. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and everything will go well for you.”
25. In the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama from the king’s family, came with ten men and killed Gedaliah. They also killed the men of Judah and Babylon who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah.
26. Then all the people, from the least important to the most important, along with the army leaders, ran away to Egypt, because they were afraid of the Babylonians.