2 Kings 24
The full text of 2 Kings 24 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 During Jehoiakim's reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. But then he turned against Nebuchadnezzar and rebelled.
2 The LORD sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against him to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by his servants the prophets.
3 Surely these things happened to Judah according to the LORD's command, in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done,
4 including the shedding of innocent blood. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was not willing to forgive.
5 As for the other events of Jehoiakim's reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?
6 Jehoiakim rested with his fathers. And Jehoiachin his son succeeded him as king.
7 The king of Egypt did not march out from his own country again, because the king of Babylon had taken all his territory, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River.
8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother's name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem.
9 He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father had done.
10 At that time the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it.
11 And Nebuchadnezzar himself came up to the city while his officers were besieging it.
12 Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his attendants, his nobles, and his officials all surrendered to him. In the eighth year of the reign of the king of Babylon, he took Jehoiachin prisoner.
13 As the LORD had declared, Nebuchadnezzar removed the treasures from the temple of the LORD and from the royal palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made for the temple of the LORD.
14 He carried all Jerusalem into exile: all the officers and fighting men, and all the skilled workers and artisans—a total of ten thousand. Only the poorest people of the land were left.
15 Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. He also took from Jerusalem to Babylon the king's mother, his wives, his officials, and the prominent people of the land.
16 The king of Babylon also deported to Babylon the entire force of seven thousand fighting men, strong and fit for war, and a thousand skilled workers and artisans.
17 He made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.
19 He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.
20 It was because of the LORD's anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence. Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Translation notes (4)
- 2 Kings 24:3a The phrase rendered 'according to the LORD's command' is Hebrew ʿal-pi YHWH, literally 'at the mouth of the LORD'. Blaming the exile on Manasseh, who had died decades earlier, recalls the prophetic sentence of 2 Kings 21:10-15, a judgment that not even Josiah's reforms could avert (2 Kings 23:26-27).
- 2 Kings 24:8a The Masoretic Text of the parallel account in 2 Chronicles 36:9 gives Jehoiachin's age as eight, but some Hebrew manuscripts and the Septuagint of that verse read eighteen, agreeing with the reading here. The figure eighteen is supported by Babylonian ration records that list Jehoiachin with sons a few years after his deportation.
- 2 Kings 24:14a The round figure of ten thousand sits alongside the itemized seven thousand soldiers and one thousand craftsmen of verse 16, and alongside Jeremiah 52:28, which numbers this deportation at 3,023. The counts may reflect different categories of captives, such as adult males only, or successive stages of the deportation; the Masoretic Text preserves all three figures without harmonization.
- 2 Kings 24:17a Mattanyah means 'gift of Yahweh'; his new name, Tsidqiyyahu, means 'Yahweh is my righteousness'. An overlord's imposition of a new name asserted his authority over a vassal, as when Pharaoh Neco renamed Eliakim as Jehoiakim (2 Kings 23:34). Nebuchadnezzar thereby marked Zedekiah as a king reigning only by Babylonian permission.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own modern English translation, worked directly from the original Hebrew and honest to the earliest manuscripts. It was completed in 2026 — the most modern English Bible translation — and is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter, including all of 2 Kings, is free to read here on the web.
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