1. In the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his whole army advanced against Jerusalem, encamped around it, and built siege walls on every side.
2. The siege of the city continued until the eleventh year of Zedekiah.
3. On the ninth day of the month, when famine had gripped the city, and the people of the land had no more food,
4. the city walls were breached. That night, all the soldiers came to the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden (the Chaldeans had the city surrounded), while the king went toward the Arabah.
5. But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook him in the desert near Jericho, abandoned by his whole army.
6. The king was therefore arrested and brought to Riblah to the king of Babylon, who pronounced sentence on him.
7. They slew Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes; then they put out his eyes, bound him with fetters, and brought him to Babylon.
8. On the seventh day of the fifth month (this was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, came to Jerusalem as the agent of the king of Babylon.
9. He burned the house of the Lord, the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem (every noble house); he destroyed them by fire.
10. The Chaldean troops who were with the captain of the guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem,
11. and Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, led into exile the last of the army remaining in the city, and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the last of the commoners.