1. Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. This happened during Zedekiah’s ninth year, tenth month and tenth day as king. He made a camp around the city. Then he built devices all around the city walls to attack it.
2. The city was under attack until Zedekiah’s eleventh year as king.
3. By the ninth day of the fourth month, the hunger was terrible in the city. There was no food for the people to eat.
4. Then the city wall was broken through. And the whole army ran away at night. They went through the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden. The Babylonians were still surrounding the city. Zedekiah and his men ran toward the Jordan Valley.
5. But the Babylonian army chased King Zedekiah. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho. All of his army was scattered from him.
6. So they captured Zedekiah and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah. There he passed sentence on Zedekiah.
7. They killed Zedekiah’s sons as he watched. Then they put out his eyes. They put bronze chains on him and took him to Babylon.
8. Nebuzaradan was the commander of the king’s special guards. This officer of the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem. This was on the seventh day of the fifth month. This was in Nebuchadnezzar’s nineteenth year as king of Babylon.
9. Nebuzaradan set fire to the Temple of the Lord and the palace. He also set fire to all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building was burned.
10. The whole Babylonian army broke down the walls around Jerusalem. That army was led by the commander of the king’s special guards.
11. Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, took captive the people left in Jerusalem. And he took captive those who had surrendered to the king of Babylon. The rest of the people were also taken away.
12. But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land. They were to take care of the vineyards and fields.
13. The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the bronze stands and the large bronze bowl, which was called the Sea. These were in the Temple of the Lord. Then they carried the bronze to Babylon.