Jeremiah 39:4–10

⁴When he saw them, Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s garden ^cthrough the gate between the two walls. They left along the route to the Arabah. ^d5However, the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains ^eof Jericho, arrested him, and brought him to Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s king, at Riblah in the land of Hamath. The king passed sentence on him there. ^f

⁶At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all Judah’s nobles. ⁷Then he blinded Zedekiah and put him in bronze chains to take him to Babylon. ^gh8The Chaldeans next burned down the king’s palace and the people’s houses and tore down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁱ⁹Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, ^jdeported the rest of the people to Babylon—those who had remained in the city and those deserters who had defected to him along with the rest of the people who had remained. ¹⁰However, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and he gave them vineyards and fields at that time. ^k