2 Kings 25: The Fall of Judah and Jerusalem – Clear & Engaging Audio Bible Reading | Siege of Jerusalem, Temple Destruction, and Exile of the People

Immerse yourself in the events of 2 Kings 25 with this clear and engaging audio recording. Experience the fall of Judah and Jerusalem with the siege of the city, the destruction of the temple, and the exile of the people. This pivotal chapter in the Old Testament chronicles the end of the Davidic dynasty and the captivity of the Israelites. Perfect for study, reflection, or meditation, let the Scriptures come alive as you listen to this powerful chapter.

2 KINGS 25 (NIV)

1 So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth
month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole
army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it.

2 The
city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

3 By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so
severe that there was no food for the people to eat.

4 Then the city wall was
broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the
two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the
city. They fled toward the Arabah,

5 but the Babylonian army pursued the king
and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated
from him and scattered,

6 and he was captured.
He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced
on him.

7 They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out
his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.

8 On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard,
an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

9 He set fire to the
temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every
important building he burned down.

10 The whole Babylonian army under the
commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

11
Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who
remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had
deserted to the king of Babylon.

12 But the commander left behind some of the
poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

13 The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the
bronze Sea that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried the bronze to
Babylon.

14 They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes and
all the bronze articles used in the temple service.

15 The commander of the
imperial guard took away the censers and sprinkling bowls—all that were made
of pure gold or silver.

16 The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the movable stands, which
Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, was more than could be weighed.

17 Each pillar was eighteen cubits high. The bronze capital on top of one
pillar was three cubits high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates
of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its network, was similar.

18 The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest,
Zephaniah the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers.

19 Of those still
in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and five royal
advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of
conscripting the people of the land and sixty of the conscripts who were found
in the city.

20 Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to
the king of Babylon at Riblah.

21 There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the
king had them executed.
So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.

22 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of
Shaphan, to be over the people he had left behind in Judah.

23 When all the
army officers and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed
Gedaliah as governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael son of
Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite,
Jaazaniah the son of the Maakathite, and their men.

24 Gedaliah took an oath
to reassure them and their men. “Do not be afraid of the Babylonian
officials,” he said. “Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon,
and it will go well with you.”

25 In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of
Elishama, who was of royal blood, came with ten men and assassinated Gedaliah
and also the men of Judah and the Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.

26
At this, all the people from the least to the greatest, together with the army
officers, fled to Egypt for fear of the Babylonians.

27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the
year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah
from prison. He did this on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month.

28 He
spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the
other kings who were with him in Babylon.

29 So Jehoiachin put aside his
prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table.

30 Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he
lived.