1. So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and all his army came to fight against Jerusalem. This happened on the 10th day of the tenth month of Zedekiah’s ninth year as king. Nebuchadnezzar put his army around Jerusalem to stop people from going in and out of the city. Then he built a wall of dirt around the city.
2. His army stayed around Jerusalem until Zedekiah’s eleventh year as king of Judah.
3. The famine was getting worse and worse in the city. By the 9th day of the fourth month, there was no more food for the common people in the city.
4. Nebuchadnezzar’s army finally broke through the city wall. That night King Zedekiah and all his soldiers ran away. They used the secret gate that went through the double walls. It was by the king’s garden. The enemy soldiers were all around the city, but Zedekiah and his men escaped on the road to the desert.
5. The Babylonian army chased King Zedekiah and caught him near Jericho. All of Zedekiah’s soldiers left him and ran away.
6. The Babylonians took King Zedekiah to the king of Babylon at Riblah. The Babylonians decided to punish Zedekiah.
7. They killed Zedekiah’s sons in front of him. Then they put out Zedekiah’s eyes. They put chains on him and took him to Babylon.
8. Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem on the 7th day of the fifth month of his nineteenth year as king of Babylon. The captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s best soldiers was Nebuzaradan.
9. Nebuzaradan burned the Lord’S Temple, the king’s palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem. He destroyed even the largest houses.
10. Then the Babylonian army that was with Nebuzaradan pulled down the walls around Jerusalem.
11. Nebuzaradan captured all the people who were still left in the city. He took all the people as prisoners, even those who had tried to surrender.