When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. ¹ 

Then Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, ¹  and all the other officers of the king of Babylon came and set up quarters ²  in the Middle Gate. ³ 

From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens ¹  for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city.

May that man be like the cities ¹  that the Lord destroyed without showing any mercy. May he hear a cry of distress in the morning and a battle cry at noon.

But as soon as they were inside the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men who were with him slaughtered them and threw their bodies ¹  in a cistern.