2 Chronicles 36:17-21

Contemporary English Version

Jerusalem Is Destroyed

(2 Kings 25.1-21; Jeremiah 52.3-30)

¹⁷^(A) The Lord sent King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia to attack Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar killed the young men who were in the temple, and he showed no mercy to anyone, whether man or woman, young or old. God let him kill everyone in the city. ¹⁸Nebuchadnezzar carried off everything that was left in the temple; he robbed the treasury and the personal storerooms of the king and his officials. He took everything back to Babylon.

¹⁹^(B) Nebuchadnezzar's troops burned down the temple and destroyed every important building in the city. Then they broke down the city wall. ²⁰The survivors were taken to Babylonia as prisoners, where they were slaves of the king and his sons, until Persia became a powerful nation.

²¹^(C) Judah was an empty desert, and it stayed that way for 70 years, to make up for all the years it was not allowed to rest.^[a] These things happened just as Jeremiah the Lord's prophet had said.^[b]

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Footnotes

36.21 rest: According to Leviticus 25.1-7, the land was supposed to rest every seventh year.
36.21 Jeremiah … said: Jeremiah 25.11,12; 29.10. According to the Law, the people had to allow the land to rest one out of every seven years (see Leviticus 25.1-7).