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And then when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the soldiers with him, they fled and went out at night from the city by the way of the garden of the king through the gate between the walls. And they went out toward the Jordan Valley.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. And he pronounced sentence on him.

And they sent and took Jeremiah from the courtyard of the guard and gave him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him to the house, so he stayed in the midst of the people.

"Go and say to Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: "Look, I am about to bring my words to pass against this city for evil and not for good. And they will be before you on that day.

then they went to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan, and Jehonathan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.

And also all the Judeans who were in Moab, and among the Ammonites, and in Edom, and who were in all the lands, when they heard that the king of Babylon had given a remnant to Judah and that he had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, in an official position over them,

then all the Judeans returned from all the places to which they were scattered. And they came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and they gathered wine and summer fruit that yielded in great abundance.

And then in the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, from the offspring of the kingship, and one of the chief officers of the king, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mizpah, along with ten men. And they ate bread together there at Mizpah.

And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah got up, along with the ten men who were with him, and they struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and killed him whom the king of Babylon had appointed in an official position over the land.

But ten men were found among them, and they said to Ishmael, "You must not kill us, for we have hidden treasures in the field, wheat, and barley, and oil, and honey. So he refrained and he did not kill them in the midst of their fellow countrymen.

then they took all the men and went to fight against Ishmael the son of Nethaniah. And they met him at the great pool that is in Gibeon.

And then, the moment that all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies who were with him, they were glad.

But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped with eight men from Johanan, and they went to the Ammonites.

And they set out and stayed at the lodging place of Chimham that is near Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt

Then they said to Jeremiah, "May Yahweh be against us as a true and faithful witness if we do not do according to all the words that Yahweh sends you for us.

But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies took all the remnant of Judah who had returned from all the nations to which they had been scattered to dwell as aliens in the land of Judah—

and they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. And they came up to Tahpanhes.

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the towns of Judah. And look, they are a site of ruins this day, and there is not in them an inhabitant,

But they did not listen and they did not incline their ears to turn back from their wickedness, to not make smoke offerings to other gods.

So my wrath and my anger were poured out and burned in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became as a site of ruins, as a desolation, as they are this day.'