2 Kings 25:1-12
Chapter 25
Fall of Jerusalem
In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, marched with his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem on the tenth day of the tenth month. They camped outside the city and built siege works all around it.The city was under siege up to the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah.
On the ninth day of the fourth month, famine became a severe problem in the city, and throughout the land, there was no bread for the people.
When a breach in the wall opened the city, the Judean army fled through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden while the Chaldeans were still around the city. They fled towards the Arabah.
The Chaldeans followed in hot pursuit of King Zedekiah and caught up with him in the plains of Jericho. All his army deserted him and scattered.
The Chaldeans seized the king and led him away to Riblah in the territory of Hamath, where the king of Babylon passed a sentence on him.
There at Riblah, the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah in his presence. He then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with a double bronze chain, and took him to Babylon.
On the seventh day of the fifth month in the nineteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, commander of the captain of the royal guard and servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem and
set fire to the house of the Lord and the royal palace, as well as to all the houses in Jerusalem.
The Chaldean army, under the commander of the bodyguard, completely demolished all the walls around Jerusalem.
Nebuzaradan, commander of the bodyguard, carried off into exile the last of the Jews left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the remainder of the artisans.
But he left those among the very poor who could work in vineyards and cultivate the soil.
Commentaries
Fall of Jerusalem.
The Babylonian troops return to Jerusalem, which manages to resist for a while. When all seemed lost, the king opened a breach in the city wall and escaped at night, but he was captured by the Babylonians near Jericho and taken prisoner to Riblah. There, Nebuchadnezzar executed the sons of the king of Judah, gouged out the king’s eyes, and took him in chains to Babylon. Meanwhile, Jerusalem was destroyed, its walls torn down, and the Temple burned; the high priest was captured, and the rest of the population was deported, leaving only a few of the lowest social classes. “Thus Judah went into exile” (21).