Nebuchadnezzar Besieges Jerusalem

(2 Chronicles 36:15–21, Jeremiah 39:1–10)

25 So 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 [fn] a siege wall all around it. 2 And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

3 By the ninth day of the fourth month,[fn] the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food. 4 Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans [fn] 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.

They headed toward the Arabah,[fn] 5 but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was separated from him. 6 The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment on him. 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.