¹⁶ but they continually ^(A)mocked the messengers of God, ^(B)despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, ^(C)until the wrath of Yahweh arose against His people, until there was no remedy. ^17 (D)Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who killed their choice men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on choice man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. ^18 (E)And all the articles of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king and of his officials, he brought them all to Babylon. ¹⁹ Then ^(F)they burned the house of God and tore down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles.

²⁰ Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, My ^(A)anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the ^(B)trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”

⁵ ‘While they are coming to ^(A)fight with the Chaldeans and to fill them with the corpses of men whom I have struck down in My anger and in My wrath, and I have ^(B)hidden My face from this city because of all their evil:

The Walls of Jerusalem Torn Down

39 ^[a]Now when Jerusalem was captured ^[b](A)in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his military force came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it; ² in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city was ^(B)breached. ³ Then all the ^(C)officials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the ^(D)Middle Gate: Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the ^[c]Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the ^[d]Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon. ⁴ Now it happened that when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they ^(E)fled and went out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate ^(F)between the two walls; and he went out toward the ^[e]Arabah. ⁵ But the military force of the ^(G)Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the ^[f](H)plains of Jericho; and they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at ^(I)Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he spoke judgment on him. ⁶ Then the ^(J)king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah ^(K)before his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slaughtered all the ^(L)nobles of Judah. ⁷ He then ^(M)blinded Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in ^(N)fetters of bronze to bring him to ^(O)Babylon. ⁸ The Chaldeans also ^(P)burned with fire the house of the king and the houses of the people, and they ^(Q)tore down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹ And as for the rest of the people who remained in the city, the ^[g](R)defectors who had gone over to him and ^(S)the rest of the people who remained, ^(T)Nebuzaradan the ^(U)captain of the bodyguard took them away into exile in Babylon.