2. And he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, just like all Jehoiakim had done.
3. Because of Adonai’s anger it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that He had them cast out of His presence. So Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4. It came to pass in the ninth year of his reign in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came—he and all his army—against Jerusalem, and besieged it. They built a siege wall all around it.
5. So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
6. In the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the famine was so severe in the city, that there was no food for the people of the land.
7. Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled, going out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was near the king’s garden—even though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They were heading along the way of the Arabah.
8. But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the desert plains of Jericho. Then all his army was scattered from him.
9. Then they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. He passed judgment on him.
10. At Riblah, the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and also all the Judean leaders.
11. Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes. Then the king of Babylon bound him in bronze chains, and brought him to Babylon, where he put him in prison until the day of his death.
12. Now in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard came into Jerusalem to represent the king of Babylon.
13. Then he burned the House of Adonai, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned every large house with fire.
14. Then all the Chaldean army, which was with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around.
15. Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and what remained of the craftsmen.
16. But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.
17. The Chaldeans smashed the bronze pillars of the House of Adonai, the stands and the bronze sea that were in the House of Adonai, and carried all the bronze to Babylon.