1
In January 1 of the ninth year of King Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar 2 came with his army to besiege Jerusalem.
2
Two and a half years later, on July 18 3 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, the Babylonians broke through the wall, and the city fell.
3
All the officers of the Babylonian army came in and sat in triumph at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer of Samgar, and Nebo-sarsekim, 4 a chief officer, and Nergal-sharezer, the king’s adviser, and all the other officers.
4
When King Zedekiah and all the soldiers saw that the Babylonians had broken into the city, they fled. They waited for nightfall and then slipped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley. 5
5
But the Babylonian 6 troops chased the king and caught him on the plains of Jericho. They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who was at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king of Babylon pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah.
6
He made Zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons and all the nobles of Judah.
7
Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon.
8
Meanwhile, the Babylonians burned Jerusalem, including the palace, and tore down the walls of the city.
9
Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, sent to Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city as well as those who had defected to him.
10
But Nebuzaradan left a few of the poorest people in Judah, and he assigned them vineyards and fields to care for.