Jeremiah 52:4–14

⁴In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around. ⁵The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

⁶By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the common people had no food. ⁷Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the Arabah.^{k 8}The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered. ⁹The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.

¹⁰At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered the Judean commanders. ¹¹Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody^A until his dying day.^l

¹²On the tenth day of the fifth month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of^B the king of Babylon. ¹³He burned the Lord’s temple, the king’s palace, all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses. ¹⁴The whole Chaldean army with the captain of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.^m