The Fall of Jerusalem Recounted

Zedekiah begins to reign at twenty-one years old and does evil in the sight of the LORD, following the pattern already established by Jehoiakim. In his ninth year Nebuchadnezzar comes against Jerusalem and lays siege to it, and the pressure continues until the city is shut in and finally broken. The narrator interprets the whole collapse theologically: Jerusalem and Judah are being cast out from the LORD's presence because of His anger.

Z¹edekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. ²And Zedekiah did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done. ³For because of the anger of the LORD, all this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until He finally banished them from His presence.

The siege tightens for many months until the famine becomes severe and there is no bread left for the people of the land. At last the city wall is breached, and the king with the soldiers flees by night through the gate near the king's garden, trying to escape toward the Arabah while the Chaldeans surround the city. Their flight fails, because the Babylonian army pursues them and overtakes Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, scattering all his troops.

⁴So 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. ⁵And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year. ⁶By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food. ⁷Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden.

Zedekiah is captured and brought up to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, where sentence is pronounced against him. There the king of Babylon kills Zedekiah's sons before his eyes and also puts the officials of Judah to death. After forcing him to witness that loss, Nebuchadnezzar blinds Zedekiah, binds him with bronze chains, and carries him to Babylon, where he remains imprisoned.

⁸They headed toward the Arabah, but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army deserted him. ⁹The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on Zedekiah. ¹⁰There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the officials of Judah. ¹¹Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.