Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

2 Kings 25

Jerusalem’s fall brings the destruction of its temple and kingdom, while Jehoiachin’s release leaves the account with a surviving captive king.

Babylon’s army surrounds Jerusalem until famine leaves the people without bread. When the walls are breached, Zedekiah flees, but he is captured, blinded, and taken to Babylon after his sons are killed. Nebuzaradan burns the temple and houses, demolishes the walls, and deports the survivors, leaving some poor people to farm. Gedaliah’s brief governorship ends in murder, and the remaining people flee to Egypt. Years later, the captive king Jehoiachin is released from prison and receives a place at Babylon’s royal table.

grieffear for the futuresermon or Bible study notes
Read
1In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it around it.
3On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
4Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city around it); and the king went by the way of the Arabah.
5But the Chaldean army pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
6Then they captured the king and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they passed judgment on him.
7They killed Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, then put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
8Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
9He burned the LORD’s house, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned every great house with fire.
10All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
11Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive the rest of the people who were left in the city and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon—all the rest of the multitude.
12But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to work the vineyards and fields.
13The Chaldeans broke up the pillars of bronze that were in the LORD’s house and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the LORD’s house, and carried the bronze pieces to Babylon.
14They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered.
15The captain of the guard took away the fire pans, the basins, that which was of gold, for gold, and that which was of silver, for silver.
16The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases, which Solomon had made for the LORD’s house, the bronze of all these vessels was not weighed.
17The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a capital of bronze was on it. The height of the capital was three cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital around it, all of bronze; and the second pillar with its network was like these.
18The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold;
20Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.
21The king of Babylon attacked them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.
22As for the people who were left in the land of Judah whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor.
23Now when all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, Johanan the son of Kareah, Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.
24Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and said to them, “Don’t be afraid because of the servants of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.”
25But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal offspring came, and ten men with him, and struck Gedaliah so that he died, with the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mizpah.
26All the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and came to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
27In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, released Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison,
28and he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon,
29and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life;
30and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him from the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
2 Kings 25:4The breach ends Jerusalem’s resistance and begins the king’s failed escape, leading to his capture and his sons’ deaths.
2 Kings 25:9The burning of YHWH’s house places the destruction of Judah’s worship center alongside the loss of royal power.
2 Kings 25:27Jehoiachin’s release after decades of captivity changes his circumstances, though Judah remains without a restored kingdom.
Where this chapter reaches

Jeremiah recounts Jerusalem’s fall and Jehoiachin’s release, while Ezekiel foretells the ruler’s capture and removal to Babylon, where he will not see the land. The temple furnishings described in 1 Kings appear here as plunder, and 2 Chronicles also records the temple’s burning and Judah’s exile.

2 Kings 25's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

Which detail of Jerusalem’s destruction most shapes your response to the loss described here?

Write on this

How does Jehoiachin’s place at the king’s table affect your reading of the chapter’s ending?

Write on this

Questions people ask about 2 Kings 25

What happened to Zedekiah in 2 Kings 25?

Zedekiah fled Jerusalem after the city’s defenses were breached. The Babylonian army caught him near Jericho and brought him to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah for judgment. His sons were killed before him; then his eyes were put out. He was bound and taken to Babylon. The chapter does not describe his death.

Who destroyed the temple in 2 Kings 25?

Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard and servant of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, burned YHWH’s house along with the palace and Jerusalem’s houses. The army demolished the city walls. The Chaldeans also broke apart the temple’s bronze furnishings and carried away metals and vessels used in its worship.

Why does 2 Kings end with Jehoiachin’s release?

The text does not explain the writer’s reason for ending here. It records a change in Judah’s captive king’s treatment: Evilmerodach releases Jehoiachin, grants him honor among other kings, and provides food for life. The ending leaves a king of Judah alive and honored in exile, without reporting a return or restoration.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on 2 Kings 25. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

2 Kings · 25 chapters
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425
What the Bible says about grief →What the Bible says about fear →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).