52:1 ゼデキヤは二十一歳で王となり、十一年間エルサレムで王位にあった。その母は名をハムタルといい、リブナ出身のイルメヤの娘であった。

52:2 彼はヨヤキムが行ったように、主の目に悪とされることをことごとく行った。

52:3 エルサレムとユダは主の怒りによってこのような事態になり、ついにその御前から投げ捨てられることになった。ゼデキヤはバビロンの王に反旗を翻した。

52:4 ゼデキヤの治世、第九年十月十日に、バビロンの王ネブカドレツァルは全軍を率いてエルサレムに到着し、陣を敷き、周りに堡塁を築いた。

52:5 都は包囲され、ゼデキヤ王の第十一年に至った。

52:6 四月九日に、都の中で飢えが厳しくなり、国の民の食糧が尽き、

52:7 都の一角が破られた。戦士たちは皆逃げ出した。彼らは夜中に、カルデア人が都を取り巻いていたが、王の園に近い二つの城壁の間にある門を通って都を出、アラバへ向かって行った。

52:8 カルデア軍は王の後を追い、エリコの荒れ地でゼデキヤに追いついた。王の軍隊はすべて王を離れ去ってちりぢりになった。

52:9 王は捕らえられ、ハマト地方のリブラにいるバビロンの王のもとに連れて行かれ、裁きを受けた。

52:10 バビロンの王は、ゼデキヤの目の前で彼の王子たちを殺し、また、ユダの将軍たちもすべてリブラで殺した。

52:11 その上で、バビロンの王はゼデキヤの両眼をつぶし、青銅の足枷をはめ、彼をバビロンに連れて行き、死ぬまで牢獄に閉じ込めておいた。

52:12 五月十日、バビロンの王ネブカドレツァルの第十九年のこと、バビロンの王の側近である親衛隊の長ネブザルアダンがエルサレムに来て、

52:13 主の神殿、王宮、エルサレムの家屋をすべて焼き払った。大いなる家屋もすべて、火を放って焼き払った。

52:14 また、親衛隊の長と共に来たカルデア人は、軍をあげてエルサレムの周囲の城壁をすべて取り壊した。

52:15 貧しい民の一部、民のうち都に残っていたほかの者、バビロンの王に投降した者、ほかの技師たちは親衛隊の長ネブザルアダンによって、捕囚とされ、連れ去られた。

52:16 この地の貧しい民の一部は、親衛隊の長ネブザルアダンによってぶどう畑と耕地にそのまま残された。

52:17 カルデア人は主の神殿の青銅の柱、台車、主の神殿にあった青銅の「海」を砕いて、その青銅をことごとくバビロンへ運び去り、

52:18 壺、十能、芯切り鋏、鉢、柄杓など、祭儀用の青銅の器をことごとく奪い取った。

52:19 また親衛隊の長は、小鉢、火皿、鉢、壺、燭台、柄杓、水差しなど、金製品も銀製品もすべて奪い取った。

52:20 ソロモンが主の神殿のために造らせた二本の柱、一つの「海」、それを支える青銅の牛十二頭および台車についていえば、これらすべてのものの青銅の重量は量りきれなかった。

52:21 柱についていえば、一本の柱の高さは十八アンマ、周囲は十二アンマ、空洞で厚みは指四本分であった。

52:22 その上に青銅の柱頭があり、一方の柱頭の高さは五アンマ、柱頭の周りには格子模様の浮き彫りとざくろがあって、このすべてが青銅であった。もう一本の柱も同様に出来ていて、ざくろもそうであった。

52:23 九十六個のざくろがぶら下がっており、格子模様の浮き彫りの周囲にあるざくろは全部で百個であった。

52:24 親衛隊の長は祭司長セラヤ、次席祭司ツェファンヤ、入り口を守る者三人を捕らえた。

52:25 また、彼は戦士の監督をする宦官一人、都にいた王の側近七人、国の民の徴兵を担当する将軍の書記官、および都にいた国の民六十人を都から連れ去った。

52:26 親衛隊の長ネブザルアダンは彼らを捕らえて、リブラにいるバビロンの王のもとに連れて行った。

52:27 バビロンの王はハマト地方のリブラで彼らを打ち殺した。こうしてユダは自分の土地を追われて捕囚となった。

52:28 ネブカドレツァルが捕囚として連れ去った民の数をここに記すと、第七年に連れ去ったユダの人々が三千二十三人、

52:29 ネブカドレツァルの第十八年にエルサレムから連れ去った者が八百三十二人であった。

52:30 ネブカドレツァルの第二十三年には、親衛隊の長ネブザルアダンがユダの人々七百四十五人を捕囚として連れ去った。総数は四千六百人である。

◆ヨヤキン王の名誉回復

52:31 ユダの王ヨヤキンが捕囚となって三十七年目の十二月二十五日に、バビロンの王エビル・メロダクは、その即位の年にユダの王ヨヤキンに情けをかけ、彼を出獄させた。

52:32 バビロンの王は彼を手厚くもてなし、バビロンで共にいた王たちの中で彼に最も高い位を与えた。

52:33 ヨヤキンは獄中の衣を脱ぎ、生きている間、毎日欠かさず王と食事を共にすることとなった。

52:34 彼は生きている間、死ぬ日まで毎日、日々の糧を常にバビロンの王から支給された。

ＴＥＶ エレ 52:1-34

52:1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of the Jeremiah who lived in the city of Libnah.

52:2 King Zedekiah sinned against the Lord, just as King Jehoiakim had done.

52:3 The Lord became so angry with the people of Jerusalem and Judah that he banished them from his sight. /Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia,

52:4 and so Nebuchadnezzar came with all his army and attacked Jerusalem on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign. They set up camp outside the city, built siege walls around it,

52:5 and kept it under siege until Zedekiah's eleventh year.

52:6 On the ninth day of the fourth month of that same year, when the famine was so bad that the people had nothing left to eat,

52:7 the city walls were broken through. Although the Babylonians were surrounding the city, all the soldiers escaped during the night. They left by way of the royal garden, went through the gateway connecting the two walls, and fled in the direction of the Jordan Valley.

52:8 But the Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah, captured him in the plains near Jericho, and all his soldiers deserted him.

52:9 Zedekiah was taken to King Nebuchadnezzar, who was in the city of Riblah in the territory of Hamath, and there Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him.

52:10 At Riblah he put Zedekiah's sons to death while Zedekiah was looking on and he also had the officials of Judah executed.

52:11 After that, he had Zedekiah's eyes put out and had him placed in chains and taken to Babylon. Zedekiah remained in prison in Babylon until the day he died.

52:12 On the tenth day of the fifth month of the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, Nebuzaradan, adviser to the king and commander of his army, entered Jerusalem.

52:13 He burned down the Temple, the palace, and the houses of all the important people in Jerusalem;

52:14 and his soldiers tore down the city walls.

52:15 Then Nebuzaradan took away to Babylonia the people who were left in the city, the remaining skilled workers, and those who had deserted to the Babylonians.

52:16 But he left in Judah some of the poorest people, who owned no property, and he put them to work in the vineyards and fields.

52:17 The Babylonians broke in pieces the bronze columns and the carts that were in the Temple, together with the large bronze tank, and they took all the bronze to Babylon.

52:18 They also took away the shovels and the ash containers used in cleaning the altar, the tools used in tending the lamps, the bowls used for catching the blood from the sacrifices, the bowls used for burning incense, and all the other bronze articles used in the Temple service.

52:19 They took away everything that was made of gold or silver: the small bowls, the pans used for carrying live coals, the bowls for holding the blood from the sacrifices, the ash containers, the lampstands, the bowls used for incense, and the bowls used for pouring out wine offerings.

52:20 The bronze objects that King Solomon had made for the Temple-the two columns, the carts, the large tank, and the twelve bulls that supported it-were too heavy to weigh.

52:21 -22 The two columns were identical: each one was 27 feet high and 18 feet around. They were hollow, and the metal was 3 inches thick. On top of each column was a bronze capital 7 1/2 feet high, and all around it was a grillwork decorated with pomegranates, all of which was also made of bronze.

52:22

52:23 On the grillwork of each column there were a hundred pomegranates in all, and ninety-six of these were visible from the ground.

52:24 In addition, Nebuzaradan, the commanding officer, took away as prisoners Seraiah the High Priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three other important Temple officials.

52:25 From the city he took the officer who had been in command of the troops, seven of the king's personal advisers who were still in the city, the commander's assistant, who was in charge of military records, and sixty other important men.

52:26 Nebuzaradan took them to the king of Babylonia, who was in the city of Riblah

52:27 in the territory of Hamath. There the king had them beaten and put to death. /So the people of Judah were carried away from their land into exile.

52:28 This is the record of the people that Nebuchadnezzar took away as prisoners: in his seventh year as king he carried away 3,023;

52:29 in his eighteenth year, 832 from Jerusalem;

52:30 and in his twenty-third year, 745-taken away by Nebuzaradan. In all, 4,600 people were taken away.

52:31 In the year that Evil-merodach became king of Babylonia, he showed kindness to King Jehoiachin of Judah by releasing him from prison. This happened on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin had been taken away as a prisoner.

52:32 Evilmerodach treated him kindly and gave him a position of greater honor than he gave the other kings who were exiles with him in Babylonia.

52:33 So Jehoiachin was permitted to change from his prison clothes and to dine at the king's table for the rest of his life.

52:34 Each day for as long as he lived, he was given a regular allowance for his needs.