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⌋.
8. The Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah and caught up with him in the plain of Jericho. His entire army had deserted him.
9. The Babylonians captured the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in Hamath, where the king of Babylon passed sentence on him.
10. The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons as Zedekiah watched. He also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah.
11. Then he blinded Zedekiah and put him in bronze shackles. The king of Babylon took him to Babylon and put him in a prison, where he stayed until he died.
12. On the tenth day of the fifth month of Nebuchadnezzar’s nineteenth year as king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, who was the captain of the guard and an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
13. He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem. Every important building was burned down.
14. The entire Babylonian army that was with the captain of the guard tore down the walls around Jerusalem.
15. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, captured the few people left in the city, those who surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population.
16. But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left some of the poorest people in the land to work in the vineyards and on the farms.
17. The Babylonians broke apart the bronze pillars of the Lord’s temple, the stands, and the bronze pool in the Lord’s temple. They shipped all the bronze to Babylon.
18. They took the pots, shovels, snuffers, bowls, dishes, and all the bronze utensils used in the temple service.
19. The captain of the guard also took pans, incense burners, bowls, pots, lamp stands, dishes, and the bowls used for wine offerings. The captain of the guard took all of the trays and bowls that were made of gold or silver.