It was in the ninth year of his [Tzidkiyohu’s] reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Nevuchadnetzar king of Bavel came, he and his entire army, against Yerusholayim and encamped near it, built siege towers around it.

The city came under siege until the eleventh year of king Tzidkiyohu.

On the ninth of the [fourth] month, the famine in the city became severe, and the people of the land had no food.

The city [wall] was breached, and all the men of war [fled] at night by way of the gate between the two walls that was near the king’s garden; the Kasdim were surrounding the city, and he [Tzidkiyohu] went by way of the Arovoh.

The army of the Kasdim pursued the king, and they overtook him on the plains of Yericho, and his entire army scattered [and left] him.

They seized the king and brought him up to the king of Bavel, at Rivloh, and called him to account.

They slaughtered Tzidkiyohu’s children before his eyes, and they blinded Tzidkiyohu’s eyes, and bound him in chains and brought him to Bavel.

In the fifth month, on the seventh of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nevuchadnetzar king of Bavel, Nevuzaradon came—the chief executioner, servant of the king of Bavel—to Yerusholayim.

He burned the Beis [Hamikdosh] of Adonoy and the king’s palace, and all of Yerusholayim’s houses, and all the houses of the dignitaries he burned in fire.

The walls surrounding Yerusholayim were demolished by the entire army of Kasdim that was with the chief executioner.

The remnant of the people who remained in the city, and the defectors who defected to the king of Bavel, and the rest of the population, Nevuzaradon the chief executioner sent into exile.

Some of the poorest of the land were left over by the chief executioner to be workers in vineyards and farmers.

The copper pillars that were in the Beis [Hamikdosh] of Adonoy and the bases and the copper sea that was in the Beis [Hamikdosh] of Adonoy, the Kasdim shattered, and they carried off their copper to Bavel.

The pots, shovels, musical instruments, spoons, and all the copper vessels with which they served, they took away.

The firepans and the bowls, whether of gold or of silver, the chief executioners took away.

The two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Shlomo had made for the Beis [Hamikdosh] of Adonoy; there was no weight for the copper of all these vessels.

The height of one pillar was eighteen amohs and there was a crown of copper upon it, the height of the crown was three amohs, and a netting and pomegranates on the crown around, all was of copper; the second pillar had the same [ornaments] on the netting.

The chief executioner took Seroyoh the chief kohein, and Tzephanyohu the deputy kohein, and the three gatekeepers.

And from the city he took one officer who was in charge of the men of war, and five men of those who saw the king’s face, who were found in the city, and the scribe of the general of the army, who would muster out the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city.

Nevuzaradon the chief executioner took them and brought them to the king of Bavel, to Rivloh.

The king of Bavel struck them down and killed them in Rivloh in the land of Chamos, and Yehudah was exiled from its land.

And [for] the people who remained in the land of Yehudah whom Nevuchadnetzar king of Bavel had left over, he appointed over them Gedalyohu son of Achikom, son of Shophon.

And all the officers of the armies heard, they and the men, that the king of Bavel had appointed Gedalyohu, and they came to Gedalyohu to Mitzpoh, with Yishmoeil son of Nesanyoh, Yochonon son of Koreiach, Seroyoh son of Tanchumes of Netophes, and Yaazneyohu son of the Maachasi, they and their men.

Gedalyohu swore to them and to their men, and said to them, “Do not fear the servants of the Kasdim; settle in the land and serve the king of Bavel and it will be well for you.”

And it was in the seventh month that there came Yishmoeil son of Nesanyoh, son of Elishomo of the royal family, with ten men, and they struck down Gedalyohu and he died, along with the Jews and the Kasdim who were with him at Mitzpoh.

All the people got up young and old, and the army officers and came to Egypt, because they were afraid of the Kasdim.

And it was in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Yehoyachin king of Yehudah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil Merodach king of Bavel elevated in the year of his coronation Yehoyachin king of Yehudah [and released him] from prison.

He spoke kindly with him, and placed his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Bavel.

He changed his prison clothing, and he ate meals before him regularly, for the rest of his life.

His food allowance was a regular allowance, given to him from the king, each day’s need on its day, for the rest of his life.