The officials were very angry ¹  at Jeremiah. They had him flogged and put in prison in the house of Jonathan, the royal secretary, which they had converted into a place for confining prisoners. ² 

An Ethiopian, Ebed Melech, ¹  a court official in the royal palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put ²  in the cistern. While the king was holding court ³  at the Benjamin Gate,

Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, ¹  took captive the rest of the people who were left in the city. He carried them off to Babylon along with the people who had deserted to him. ² 

So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, Nebushazban, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, ¹  and all the other officers of the king of Babylon

On the tenth ¹  day of the fifth month, ²  in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard ³  who served ⁴  the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.

Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took into exile some of the poor, ¹  the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the rest of the craftsmen.

in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, ¹  Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, carried into exile 745 Judeans. In all 4,600 people went into exile.

The king uttered these words: “Is this not the great Babylon that I have built for a royal residence ¹  by my own mighty strength ²  and for my majestic honor?”

At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ¹  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ²  The king was watching the back ³  of the hand that was writing.

“Then there will arise in his place a despicable person ¹  to whom the royal honor has not been rightfully conferred. He will come on the scene in a time of prosperity and will seize the kingdom through deceit.

I will remove ¹  the ruler ²  from Ashdod, ³  the one who holds the royal scepter from Ashkelon. ⁴  I will strike Ekron ⁵  with my hand; ⁶  the rest of the Philistines will also die.” ⁷  The sovereign Lord has spoken!

The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ¹  him making locusts just as the crops planted late ²  were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest. ³ )

I will overthrow royal thrones and shatter the might of earthly kingdoms. ¹  I will overthrow chariots and those who ride them, and horses and their riders will fall as people kill one another. ² 

The land will mourn, clan by clan – the clan of the royal household of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the clan of the family of Nathan ¹  by itself and their wives by themselves;

My servants will bring the timber down from Lebanon to the sea. I will send it by sea in raft-like bundles to the place you designate. ¹  There I will separate the logs ²  and you can carry them away. In exchange you will supply the food I need for my royal court.” ³ 

Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace and handed it to his servants. He then told them to deliver it ¹  to Ben Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message:

Then they said to one another, “It’s not right what we’re doing! This is a day to celebrate, but we haven’t told anyone. ¹  If we wait until dawn, ²  we’ll be punished. ³  So come on, let’s go and inform the royal palace.”

So Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram and sister of Ahaziah, took Ahaziah’s son Joash and sneaked ¹  him away from the rest of the royal descendants who were to be executed. She hid him and his nurse in the room where the bed covers were stored. ²  So he was hidden from Athaliah and escaped execution. ³ 

In the seventh year Jehoiada summoned ¹  the officers of the units of hundreds of the Carians ²  and the royal bodyguard. ³  He met with them ⁴  in the Lord’s temple. He made an agreement ⁵  with them and made them swear an oath of allegiance in the Lord’s temple. Then he showed them the king’s son.

King Jehoash of Judah collected all the sacred items that his ancestors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had consecrated, as well as his own sacred items and all the gold that could be found in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. He sent it all ¹  to King Hazael of Syria, who then withdrew ²  from Jerusalem.