1. Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.
2. Zedekiah did what the Lord considered evil, as Jehoiakim had done.
3. The Lord became angry with Jerusalem and Judah and threw the people out of his sight.Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4. On the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem with his entire army. They set up camp and built dirt ramps around the city walls.
5. The blockade of the city lasted until Zedekiah’s eleventh year as king.
6. On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city became so severe that the common people had no food.
7. The enemy broke through the city walls, and all Judah’s soldiers fled. They left the city at night through the gate between the two walls beside the king’s garden. While the Babylonians were attacking the city from all sides, they took the road to the plain ⌊of Jericho⌋.