I will also bring back to this place Jehoiakim’s son King Jeconiah of Judah and all the exiles who were taken to Babylon.’ Indeed, the Lord affirms, ¹  ‘I will break the yoke of servitude to the king of Babylon.’”

The prophet Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from Jerusalem ¹  to Babylon. It was addressed to the elders who were left among the exiles, to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the other people who were exiled in Babylon. ² 

And all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use them as examples when they put a curse on anyone. They will say, “May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab whom the king of Babylon roasted to death in the fire!” ¹ 

“Announce ¹  the news among the nations! Proclaim it! Signal for people to pay attention! ²  Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say: ‘Babylon will be captured. Bel ³  will be put to shame. Marduk will be dismayed. Babylon’s idols will be put to shame. Her disgusting images ⁴  will be dismayed. ⁵ 

Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall! ¹  Bring more guards! ²  Post them all around the city! ³  Put men in ambush! ⁴  For the Lord will do what he has planned. He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon. ⁵ 

“Say to the rebellious house of Israel: ¹  ‘Don’t you know what these things mean?’ ²  Say: ‘See here, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem ³  and took her king and her officials prisoner and brought them to himself in Babylon.

I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh will fall limp. Then they will know that I am the Lord when I place my sword in the hand of the king of Babylon and he extends it against the land of Egypt.

Then Daniel went in to see ¹  Arioch (whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon). He came ²  and said to him, “Don’t destroy the wise men of Babylon! Escort me ³  to the king, and I will disclose the interpretation to him!” ⁴ 

The king of Assyria brought foreigners ¹  from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the cities of Samaria ²  in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.

Isaiah the prophet visited King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say? Where do they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They come from the distant land of Babylon.”

‘Look, a time is ¹  coming when everything in your palace and the things your ancestors have accumulated to this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.

The king of Egypt did not march out from his land again, for the king of Babylon conquered all the territory that the king of Egypt had formerly controlled between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River.

What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord’s anger; he finally threw them out of his presence. ¹  Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. ¹ 

The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the Lord’s temple, as well as the movable stands and the big bronze basin called the “The Sea.” ¹  They took the bronze to Babylon.

Genealogical records were kept for all Israel; they are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Israel.The people of Judah ¹  were carried away to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.

So the Lord brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria. They seized Manasseh, put hooks in his nose, ¹  bound him with bronze chains, and carried him away to Babylon.

At the beginning of the year King Nebuchadnezzar ordered him to be brought ¹  to Babylon, along with the valuable items in the Lord’s temple. In his place he made his relative ²  Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Now after these things had happened, during the reign of King Artaxerxes ¹  of Persia, Ezra came up from Babylon. ²  Ezra was the son of Seraiah, who was the son of Azariah, who was the son of Hilkiah,

On the first day of the first month he had determined to make ¹  the ascent from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he arrived at Jerusalem, ²  for the good hand of his God was on him.