The Fall of Jerusalem

52 Zedekiah was ⌊twenty-one years old⌋a at his beginning to reign, and he reigned eleven yearsb in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh like all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For because of the ⌊anger⌋c of Yahweh this happened in Jerusalem and Judah until his casting them from his ⌊presence⌋.d And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4 ⌊And then⌋e in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came against Jerusalem, he and all his army. And they laid siege to it, and built siege worksf against it all around. 5 So the city came ⌊under siege⌋g until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

6 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine in the city became severe and there was no food for the people of the land. 7 Then the city was breached, and all ⌊the soldiers⌋h fled and went out from the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls that are at the garden of the king, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. And they went in the direction of the Jordan Valley.i 8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. 9 Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and ⌊he passed sentence on him⌋.j 10 And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah. 11 Then he made blind the eyes of Zedekiah, and they tied him up with bronze fetters, and the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon. And he put him in ⌊prison⌋k until the day of his death.