2 Kings 24:17–25:7

¹⁷And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s^B uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.^g

JUDAH’S KING ZEDEKIAH

¹⁸Zedekiah^h was twenty-one years old when he became king,ⁱ and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal^j daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. ¹⁹Zedekiah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight just as Jehoiakim had done.^{k 20}Because of the Lord’s anger,^l it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he finally banished them from his presence.^m Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.ⁿ

NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S SIEGE OF JERUSALEM

25In the ninth year^o of Zedekiah’s reign,^p on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army.^q They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around.^{r 2}The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

³By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the common people had no food.^{s 4}Then the city was broken into,^t and all the warriors fled^u at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden,^v even though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. As the king made his way along the route to the Arabah,^{w 5}the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered.^{x 6}The Chaldeans seized the king^y and brought him up to the king of Babylon^z at Riblah,^aa and they passed sentence on him. ⁷They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes. Finally, the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him in bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.^ab