2 Kings 25:1-7·~1 min

Nebuchadnezzar Besieges Jerusalem

Nebuchadnezzar surrounds Jerusalem and holds it under siege for years until famine overtakes the city. The pressure of Babylon slowly empties Jerusalem of strength.

S¹o in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it. ²And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year. ³By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.

The city is breached, Zedekiah flees, and Babylon overtakes him near Jericho. At Riblah he is judged, forced to watch his sons die, then blinded and taken to Babylon.

⁴Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. ⁵They headed toward the Arabah, but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army deserted him. ⁶The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment on him. ⁷And 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.

Section summaryBabylon’s siege closes over Jerusalem until famine breaks the city and Zedekiah’s last escape fails. His capture, judgment, and blinding turn the fall of the city into the personal ruin of Judah’s king.

Role in the chapterThis opening section completes the long-deferred judgment against Jerusalem by showing the city’s military defeat and the king’s humiliation. It sets the tone for the rest of the chapter, where public collapse spreads into temple, land, and dynasty.