ng of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and
the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came unto
the city, while his soldiers were besieging it; and Jehoiachin the
king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and
his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of
Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. And he carried out
thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures
of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which
Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord
had said. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and
all {347} the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all
the craftsmen and the smiths; none remained, save the poorest sort of
the people of the land. And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon; and
the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the
chief men of the land, carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to
Babylon. And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and the
craftsmen and the smiths a thousand, all of them strong and apt for
war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon. And the
king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father's brother king in his stead,
and changed his name to Zedekiah.

{348}

ZEDEKIAH.

(Over the remnant of Judah Nebuchadnezzar placed a vassal king who
swore the strongest oaths of allegiance to his superior. After
reigning some years, however, he rebelled. Then followed one of the
most desperate sieges of history. Jerusalem was ringed about by forts,
assailed by all the enginery of the times. Famine and pestilence
walked in her streets, and at last the city yielded. Zedekiah and his
family escaped in the confusion, but were quickly captured and brought
before Nebuchadnezzar. The cruel conqueror killed the children of the
captive king before his sight, and then put out his eyes.)

Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in
the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For
through the anger of the Lord did it come to pass in Jerusalem and
Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence: and Zedekiah
rebelled against the king of Babylon.

And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth
month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of
Bab