Study Desk

The Lord said: Listen to the cries for help coming from Babylon. Everywhere in the country the sounds of destruction can be heard.

An enemy will attack and destroy Babylon. Its soldiers will be captured and their weapons broken, because I am a God who takes revenge against nations for what they do.

During Zedekiah's fourth year as king of Judah, he went to Babylon. And Baruch's brother Seraiah went along as the officer in charge of arranging for places to stay overnight.

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he was appointed king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother Hamutal was the daughter of Jeremiah from the town of Libnah.

Nebuzaradan ordered his soldiers to go to the temple and take everything made of gold or silver, including bowls, fire pans, sprinkling bowls, pans, lampstands, dishes for incense, and the cups for wine offerings. The Babylonian soldiers took all the bronze things used for worship at the temple, including the pans for hot ashes, and the shovels, lamp snuffers, sprinkling bowls, and dishes for incense. The soldiers also took everything else made of bronze, including the two columns that stood in front of the temple, the large bowl called the Sea, the twelve bulls that held it up, and the movable stands. The soldiers broke these things into pieces so they could take them to Babylonia. There was so much bronze that it could not be weighed.

For example, the columns were about twenty-seven feet high and eighteen feet around. They were hollow, but the bronze was about three inches thick.

Then he arrested one of the army commanders, seven of King Zedekiah's personal advisors, and the officer in charge of gathering the troops for battle. He also found sixty more soldiers who were still in Jerusalem.

Jehoiachin was a prisoner in Babylon for thirty-seven years. Then Evil Merodach became king of Babylonia, and in the first year of his rule, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he let Jehoiachin out of prison.

Everyone in the city groans while searching for food; they trade their valuables for barely enough scraps to stay alive. Jerusalem Speaks: Jerusalem shouts to the Lord , "Please look and see how miserable I am!"

From heaven you sent a fire that burned in my bones; you set a trap for my feet and made me turn back. All day long you leave me in shock from constant pain.

You have tied my sins around my neck, and they weigh so heavily that my strength is gone. You have put me in the power of enemies too strong for me.

I called out to my lovers, but they betrayed me. My priests and my leaders died while searching the city for scraps of food.

A child begs its mother for food and drink, then blacks out like a wounded soldier lying in the street. The child slowly dies in its mother's arms.

Zion, your enemies curse you and snarl like wild animals, while shouting, "This is the day we've waited for! At last, we've got you!"

Get up and pray for help all through the night. Pour out your feelings to the Lord, as you would pour water out of a jug. Beg him to save your people, who are starving to death at every street crossing.

Jerusalem Speaks: Think about it, Lord ! Have you ever been this cruel to anyone before? Is it right for mothers to eat their children, or for priests and prophets to be killed in your temple?

When you were angry, Lord , you invited my enemies like guests for a party. No one survived that day; enemies killed my children, my own little ones.

Even when I shouted and prayed for help, he refused to listen.

God was like a bear or a lion waiting in ambush for me;

I tell myself, "I am finished! I can't count on the Lord to do anything for me."