The Fall of Jerusalem Recounted

(Psalm 74:1–23, Psalm 79:1–13, 2 Kings 24:18–20, 2 Chronicles 36:11–14)

Zedekiah 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.

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And [Zedekiah] did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3 For because of the anger of the LORD, [all this] happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until He finally banished them from His presence.

And Zedekiah also rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4 

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 a siege wall all around it. 5 And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

6 

By the ninth [day] of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food. 7 Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans[fn] 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.

They headed toward the Arabah,[fn] 8 but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army deserted him.

9 

[The 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].

10 

There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the officials of Judah. 11 Then 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.

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