On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then 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: and the king escaped from the city.
But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army was scattered from him. Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, an officer of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: and he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burnt he with fire. And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about. And the residue of the people that were left in the city, and those that fled to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away captive. But the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen. And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases and the brazen sea that were in the house of the Lord, did the Chaldeans break in pieces, and carried the [{352}] brass of them to Babylon. And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away. And the firepans, and the basins; that which was of gold, and that which was of silver, the captain of the guard took away. The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord; the brass of all these vessels was of great weight. So Judah was carried away captive.
THE KINGDOM OF THE NORTH
JEROBOAM.
(The story of the revolt of the northern part of the kingdom from the south has been told in the story of [Rehoboam]. Jeroboam, who became the king of the northern territory, was little improvement over Rehoboam, his rival in the south. He was not of royal birth, but, as a bright young man in Solomon's court, came under the great king's notice. He plotted, however, against his master, and, his treachery being discovered, fled to Egypt. As soon as Solomon died, Jeroboam returned from Egypt, and became the leader of the successful revolt against the tyranny of the young king of the south.)
The New Kingdom.
Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and he went out from thence, and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David: if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then will the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah." Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said unto them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." And he set the one [{354}] in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before, the one, even unto Dan. And he made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he went up unto the altar; so did he in Beth-el, sacrificing unto the calves that he made: and he placed in Beth-el the priests of the high places which he had made. And he went up unto the altar which he had made in Beth-el on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up unto the altar, to burn incense.