2 Kings 25:1–12

Nebuchadnezzar Besieges Jerusalem

^1aNow in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, ^bNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his military force, against Jerusalem, and he camped against it and ^cbuilt a siege wall all around ¹it.

²So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

³On the ninth day of the fourth month ^athe famine was so strong in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

^4aThen the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls beside ^bthe king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. And ¹they went by way of the Arabah.

⁵But the military force of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho and all his military force was scattered from him.

⁶Then ^athey seized the king and ^bbrought him up to the king of Babylon at ^cRiblah, and they spoke their judgment on him.

^7aAnd they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; then he ^bblinded the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.

Jerusalem Burned

^8aNow on the seventh day of the ^bfifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

^9aAnd he burned the house of Yahweh, ^bthe king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire.

¹⁰So all the military force of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard ^atore down the walls around Jerusalem.

¹¹Then ^athe rest of the people who were left in the city and the defectors who had defected to the king of Babylon and the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took away into exile.

¹²But the captain of the guard left some of ^athe poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.