2 Kings 24:20-25:7

Expanded Bible

²⁰ All this happened in Jerusalem and Judah because the Lord was angry with them. Finally, he ·threw [banished; cast] them out of his presence.

Zedekiah ·turned [rebelled] against the king of Babylon.

The Fall of Jerusalem^(A)

25 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army during Zedekiah’s ninth year as king, on the tenth day of the tenth month [^CJanuary 15, 588 bc]. He made a camp around the city and ·piled dirt against the city walls to attack it [built siege walls all around it]. ² The city was under ·attack [siege] until Zedekiah’s eleventh year as king. ³ By ·the ninth day of the fourth month [^CJuly 18, 586 bc], the ·hunger [famine] was ·terrible [severe] in the city. There was no food for the people to eat. ⁴ Then the wall of the city was breached, and the whole army ran away at night through the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden. ·While [Though] the Babylonians were still surrounding the city, Zedekiah and his men ran away toward the ·Jordan Valley [^LArabah; ^Ca plain near Jericho, east of Jerusalem]. ⁵ But the Babylonian army chased King Zedekiah and caught up with him in the plains of Jericho. All of his army ·was scattered from [deserted] him, ⁶ so they captured Zedekiah and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah. There he passed sentence on Zedekiah. ⁷ They ·killed [slaughtered] Zedekiah’s sons as he watched. Then they ·put [gouged] out his eyes and put bronze ·chains [shackles] on him and took him to Babylon.