2 Kings 25:1–11

The Fall of Jerusalem

25^*Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, so Nebuchadnezzar came with all his army and attacked Jerusalem on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. They set up camp outside the city, built siege walls round it, ²and kept it under siege until Zedekiah’s eleventh year. ³On the ninth day of the fourth month^g of that same year, when the famine was so bad that the people had nothing left to eat, ^4*the city walls were broken through. Although the Babylonians were surrounding the city, all the soldiers escaped during the night. They left by way of the royal garden, went through the gateway connecting the two walls, and fled in the direction of the Jordan Valley. ⁵But the Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah, captured him in the plains near Jericho, and all his soldiers deserted him. ⁶Zedekiah was taken to King Nebuchadnezzar, who was in the city of Riblah, and there Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him. ^7*While Zedekiah was looking on, his sons were put to death; then Nebuchadnezzar had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, placed him in chains, and took him to Babylon.

The Destruction of the Temple

⁸On the seventh day of the fifth month of the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, Nebuzaradan, adviser to the king and commander of his army, entered Jerusalem. ^9*He burnt down the Temple, the palace, and the houses of all the important people in Jerusalem, ¹⁰and his soldiers tore down the city walls. ¹¹Then Nebuzaradan took away to Babylonia the people who were left in the city, the remaining skilled workmen,^h and those who had deserted to the Babylonians.