⁴Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylonia. He marched out against Jerusalem. All of his armies went with him. It was in the ninth year of the rule of Zedekiah. It was on the tenth day of the tenth month. The armies set up camp outside the city. They set up ladders and built ramps and towers all around it. ⁵It was surrounded until the 11th year of King Zedekiah’s rule.

⁶By the ninth day of the fourth month, there wasn’t any food left in the city. So the people didn’t have anything to eat. ⁷Then the Babylonians broke through the city wall.

Judah’s whole army ran away. They left the city at night. They went out through the gate between the two walls that were near the king’s garden. They escaped even though the Babylonians surrounded the city. Judah’s army ran toward the Arabah Valley.

⁸But the armies of Babylonia chased King Zedekiah. They caught up with him in the flatlands near Jericho. All of his soldiers were separated from him. They had scattered in every direction. ⁹The king was captured.

He was taken to the king of Babylonia at Riblah. Riblah was in the land of Hamath. That’s where Nebuchadnezzar decided how he would be punished. ¹⁰At Riblah the king of Babylonia killed the sons of Zedekiah. He forced him to watch it with his own eyes. Nebuchadnezzar also killed all of the officials of Judah. ¹¹Then he poked out Zedekiah’s eyes. He put him in bronze chains. And he took him to Babylon. There he put Zedekiah in prison until the day he died.

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