2 Kings 25:2–11

²The 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 people of the land had no food. ^d4Then the city was broken into, ^eand all the warriors fled ^fby night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, ^geven though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. As the king made his way along the route to the Arabah, ^h5the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army was scattered from him. ⁱ⁶The Chaldeans seized the king ^jand brought him up to the king of Babylon ^kat Riblah, ^land 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. ^m

Jerusalem Destroyed

⁸On ⁿthe seventh day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. ^o9He burned the Lord’s temple, ^pthe king’s palace, ^qand all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down ^rall the great houses. ¹⁰The whole Chaldean army with the commander of the guards tore down the walls ^ssurrounding Jerusalem. ¹¹Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population. ^t