Chapter 25

Neb comes back and besieges Jerusalem a second time.  They build siege works.

The siege lasts 30 months.  The city has no food left at all.  The wall is breached, the city falls.  Z and "all the men of war" sneak out and make a run for the Arabah.  Not sure how they could have gotten out while surrounded, but they did.  Also hard to believe the entire army fled and left all the civilians to their fate.  Doesn't work out for them though.  They are caught by the Chaldeans.  Zedekiah's sons are killed and he is taken in chains to Babylon - but blinded first.

A month later, Nebuzaradan, Capt of the King's Guard, comes and burns the Temple, the King's house, and all the houses in Jerusalem.  Then many more go into captivity, as in Jeremiah.  They carry away all the vessels left in the Temple, and all the bronze.  Loot it completely.  Further, they don't take most of the vessels intact, but cut them up and carry them away in pieces.  Likely they were easier to transport that way...and likely it was easier to steal a little gold here and there since all the pieces might not be accounted for.  We know some vessels survived because they are brought out later by a Babylonian King on the night Babylon falls to Medo-Persia.  Nebuzaradan finds some more officials who had not been captured.  Among them:

18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold; [2Ki 25:18 ESV]

MSB says Seraiah was the grandson of Hilkiah the High Priest...so perhaps Seraiah was serving as High Priest at the time.  These, and a number of other "leaders" are taken to Nebuchadnezzar.  They are killed.  So at this point Zedekiah King of Judah is blind and in chains, and the High Priest has been killed, with no immediate successor.  Judah has been destroyed physically, governmentally, and religiously.  Everyone of any use has been taken captive to Babylon, and only the lowest of the low - who couldn't take care of themselves anyway - are left in the country.

Nebuchadnezzar appoints Gedeliah governor when he leaves.  Gedeliah is not a member of the royal family, but of a family that served in Josiah's time.  When word gets out, survivors come to Gedeliah.  Those who come to him are called "the captains and their men" so these might have formed the core of a defensive army in Judah.  They "regroup".  But Ishmael, son of Syria's King, comes and kills Gedeliah and those found with him. Israel's enemies want them gone, and do this to insure that they remain powerless.  The remaining people flee to Egypt.

In year 37 of the exile, Evil-Merodach frees Jehoiachin from prison, sets him at his table above other captured kings, and gives him a regular allowance.  For as long as he lived.

This is the last chapter of 2Kings.