Nebuchadnezzar Besieges Jerusalem

25 Now in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he with all his army, against Jerusalem, and camped against it and built siege works surrounding it. ² The city came under siege [for nearly two years] until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³ On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine [caused by the siege] was severe in the city; there was no food for the people of the land. ⁴ Then the city [wall] was broken into [and conquered]; all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden, though the ^[a]Chaldeans (Babylonians) were all around the city. And they went by way of the Arabah (the plain of the Jordan). ⁵ The army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Then his entire army was dispersed from him. ⁶ So they seized the king (Zedekiah) and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah [on the Orontes River], and sentence was passed on him. ⁷ They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him [hand and foot] with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.^(A)

⁵ But the Chaldean (Babylonian) army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. When they had seized him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the [Aramean] land of Hamath, where he passed sentence on him.

⁷ Then the city was broken into, and all the soldiers fled. They left the city at night [as Ezekiel prophesied] passing through the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They fled by way of the Arabah (the Jordan Valley).^{(A) 8} But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and his entire army was scattered from him. ⁹ Then they seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the [Syrian] land of Hamath [on the northern border of Israel], where he pronounced sentence on him. ¹⁰ The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the princes of Judah at Riblah. ¹¹ Then the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon and there he put him in prison ^[a][in a mill] until the day of his death.^(B)