1 Then the people of Judah chose Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and appointed him as the king in Jerusalem.

2 Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became the king, but he ruled from Jerusalem for only three months. 3 King Neco of Egypt captured him and prevented him from ruling any longer. He also forced the people of Judah to pay him a tax of almost four tons of silver and about 75 pounds of gold. 4 The king of Egypt appointed Jehoahaz’s younger brother Eliakim to be the king of Judah. He changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. After Neco captured Jehoahaz, he took him to Egypt.

5 Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became the king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for 11 years. He did things that Yahweh his God considers to be evil. 6 Then the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jehoiakim’s army. They captured Jehoiakim and bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon. 7 Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers also took valuable things from the temple; they took them to Babylon and put them in king Nebuchadnezzar’s palace there.

8 A record of the other things that happened while Jehoiakim was ruling, the detestable things that he did, including the evil things that people said that he did, is written in the scroll called ‘The History of the Kings of Israel and Judah’. After he was taken to Babylon, his son Jehoiachin became the king of Judah.

9 Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became the king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for only three months and ten days. He did things that Yahweh considers to be evil. 10 During the spring of the next year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent soldiers to bring him to Babylon. They also took to Babylon many valuable things from the temple of Yahweh. Then Nebuchadnezzar appointed Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, to be the king of Judah.

11 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became the king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for 11 years. 12 He did many things that Yahweh his God considered to be evil. And he did not humble himself when the prophet Jeremiah gave him a message from Yahweh to warn him. 13 He would not return to Yahweh, the God that the people of Israel said that they worshiped. Zedekiah also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had forced him to solemnly promise using God’s name to be loyal to him. Zedekiah became very stubborn. 14 Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and also the people of Judah became more wicked again, doing all the detestable things that the people of the other nations did, and causing the temple in Jerusalem that Yahweh had caused to be holy to become an unacceptable place to worship him.

15 Yahweh, the God whom the ancestors of the people of Judah belonged to/worshiped, gave messages to his prophets many times, and the prophets told those messages to the people of Judah. Yahweh did that because he pitied his people and did not want his temple to be destroyed. 16 But the people continually made fun of God’s messengers. They despised God’s messages. They ridiculed his prophets, until finally God became extremely angry with his people, with the result that nothing could stop him from destroying Judah. 17 He incited the king of Babylonia to attack Judah with his army. They killed the young men with their swords, even in the temple. They did not spare/pity anyone, young men or young women or old people. God enabled the army of Nebuchadnezzar to kill all of them. 18 His soldiers took to Babylon all the things that were used in God’s temple—big things and little things, all the valuable things, and the valuable things that belonged to the king and his officials. 19 They burned the temple, and they broke down the wall surrounding Jerusalem. They burned all the palaces in Jerusalem and destroyed all the remaining valuable things there.

20 Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers took to Babylon the remaining people who had not been killed with their swords. Then those people became the king’s slaves and his son’s slaves, until the army of the king of Persia conquered the army of Babylonia. 21 Moses had said that every seventh year the people must not plant their fields; they must allow the soil to rest. But the people had not done that. So after the army of Babylonia destroyed Judah, the soil was allowed to rest. That continued for 70 years, fulfilling what Yahweh told Jeremiah and what Jeremiah had predicted/prophesied would happen.

22 During the first year that Cyrus was the king of Persia, in order that what Yahweh told Jeremiah would happen would occur, Yahweh motivated Cyrus to write this and proclaim it throughout his kingdom:

23 “I, Cyrus, the king of Persia, declare that Yahweh, the God who rules in heaven, has enabled me to become the ruler of all the kingdoms of this world. And he wants me to command that my workers build a temple {a temple be built} for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Any of his people living among you people of Persia are allowed to go to Jerusalem. And I will pray that Yahweh will be with them.”