2 Kings 25 - Are we to hope?

Judah has been leveled; the temple has been sacked; the people have been exiled.  It would seem like the dream is over.  Yet the story goes on in fairly predictable fashion:  Zedekiah is killed fleeing from the siege, a governor is placed over the area, he (Gedaliah the governor) is killed but the assassins flee to Egypt, and the rest of the people were afraid of the repercussions so they fled as well.  The situation seems utterly hopeless.  However the book of 2 Kings ends with the king of Babylon releasing the king of Judah, Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:12), to a form of house arrest.  Jehoiachin even eats with the king of Babylon.  It seems that while story in the book of Kings is done, the King of kings is not finished with His story.