Study Desk

The king of Babylon heard about those armies, and he became helpless with fear. Distress has gripped him. His pain is like that of a woman giving birth to a baby.

"Foreigners in Babylon say, ‘We tried to heal Babylon, but she cannot be healed. So let us leave her and each go to his own country. Babylon's punishment is as high as the sky; it reaches to the clouds.'

"Sharpen the arrows! Pick up your shields! The Lord has stirred up the kings of the Medes, because he wants to destroy Babylon. The Lord will punish them as they deserve for destroying his Temple.

The Lord All-Powerful has promised in his own name: ‘Babylon, I will surely fill you with so many enemy soldiers they will be like a swarm of locusts. They will stand over you and shout their victory.'

"The Lord made the earth by his power. He used his wisdom to build the world and his understanding to stretch out the skies.

When he thunders, the waters in the skies roar. He makes clouds rise in the sky all over the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

But God, who is Jacob's Portion, is not like the idols. He made everything, and he chose Israel to be his special people. The Lord All-Powerful is his name.

One messenger follows another; messenger follows messenger. They announce to the king of Babylon that his whole city has been captured.

"Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has defeated and destroyed us. In the past he took our people away, and we became like an empty jar. He was like a giant snake that swallowed us. He filled his stomach with our best things. Then he spit us out.

This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to the officer Seraiah son of Neriah, who was the son of Mahseiah. Seraiah went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year Zedekiah was king of Judah. His duty was to arrange the king's food and housing on the trip.

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, and she was from Libnah.

All this happened in Jerusalem and Judah because the Lord was angry with them. Finally, he threw them out of his presence. Zedekiah turned against the king of Babylon.

Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They made a camp around the city and built devices all around the city walls to attack it. This happened on Zedekiah's ninth year, tenth month, and tenth day as king.

Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army of Judah ran away at night. They left the city through the gate between the two walls by the king's garden. Even though the Babylonians were surrounding the city, Zedekiah and his men headed toward the Jordan Valley.

But the Babylonian army chased King Zedekiah and caught him in the plains of Jericho. All of his army was scattered from him.

So Jehoiachin put away his prison clothes, and for the rest of his life, he ate at the king's table.

The enemy reached out and took all her precious things. She even saw foreigners enter her Temple. The Lord had commanded foreigners never to enter the meeting place of his people.

Jerusalem says, "You who pass by on the road don't seem to care. Come, look at me and see: Is there any pain like mine? Is there any pain like that he has caused me? The Lord has punished me on the day of his great anger.

"He has noticed my sins; they are tied together by his hands; they hang around my neck. He has turned my strength into weakness. The Lord has handed me over to those who are stronger than I.

Look how the Lord in his anger has brought Jerusalem to shame. He has thrown down the greatness of Israel from the sky to the earth; he did not remember the Temple, his footstool, on the day of his anger.