4 When King Zedekiah of Judah and all the fighting men saw them, they fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s gardenb through the city gate between the two walls. They left along the route to the Arabah.c 5 However, the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They arrested him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s king, at Riblah in the land of Hamath. The king passed sentence on him there.d

6 At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all Judah’s nobles. 7 Then he blinded Zedekiah and put him in bronze chains to take him to Babylon.e