Bible Strands
2 Kings 25:7
And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Chaldean soldiers execute Zedekiah’s sons and blind, bind, and deport him after his judgment at Riblah.
The words — שָׁחֲטוּ (sha.cha.Tu) translates literally as “they slaughtered,” while עֵינֵי (‘ei.Nei) means “eyes of.”
The thread — The forced captivity and blindness fulfill the judgment pronounced at Riblah (2 Kings 25:6) and match Jeremiah’s warning that Zedekiah would not escape the Chaldeans (Jeremiah 32:4).
Why it lands — The text records the exact execution of royal lineage and the removal of Zedekiah’s sight, demanding acknowledgment of irreversible judgment and the concrete cost of political rebellion.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 32:4 Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hands of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye.
- Genesis 21:16 Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I cannot bear to watch the boy die!” And as she sat nearby, she lifted up her voice and wept.
- Genesis 44:34 For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the misery that would overwhelm him.”
- Deuteronomy 28:34 You will be driven mad by the sights you see.
- Judges 16:21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.
- 2 Chronicles 33:11 So the LORD brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
- 2 Chronicles 36:6 Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jehoiakim and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.
- Psalms 107:10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains,
- Psalms 149:8 to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with shackles of iron,
- Jeremiah 22:30 This is what the LORD says: “Enroll this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will prosper to sit on the throne of David or to rule again in Judah.”