2. Zedekiah did evil things, just as King Jehoiakim had done. The Lord did not like Zedekiah doing those evil things.
3. Terrible things happened to the people of Jerusalem and Judah because the Lord was angry with them. Finally, he threw them out of his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4. So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s rule, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. The army of Babylon set up their camp outside of Jerusalem. Then they built ramps all around the city walls so that they could get over the walls.
5. The city of Jerusalem was surrounded by the army of Babylon until the eleventh year that Zedekiah was king.
6. By the ninth day of the fourth month of that year, the hunger in the city was very bad. There was no food left for the people in the city to eat.
7. On that day the army of Babylon broke into Jerusalem. The soldiers of Jerusalem ran away. They left the city at night. They went through the gate between the two walls. That gate was near the king’s garden. Even though the army of Babylon had surrounded the city, the soldiers of Jerusalem still ran away toward the desert.
8. But the Babylonian army chased King Zedekiah and caught him on the plains of Jericho. All of Zedekiah’s soldiers ran away.
9. The army of Babylon captured King Zedekiah and took him to the king of Babylon who was at the city of Riblah, in the land of Hamath. At Riblah the king of Babylon announced his judgment on King Zedekiah.
10. There, at the town of Riblah, the king of Babylon killed Zedekiah’s sons while Zedekiah watched. The king of Babylon also killed all the royal officials of Judah.
11. Then the king of Babylon tore out Zedekiah’s eyes. He put bronze chains on him and took him to Babylon. In Babylon he put Zedekiah into prison. He stayed in prison until the day he died.
12. Nebuzaradan was the commander of the king of Babylon’s special guard. He was one of the king’s most important officials while at Jerusalem. He came to Jerusalem on the tenth day of the fifth month, in the 19th year that Nebuchadnezzar was king.
13. Nebuzaradan burned the Lord’S Temple, the king’s palace, and every important building in Jerusalem, as well as all the houses.
14. All the Babylonian soldiers that were with the commander broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
15. Commander Nebuzaradan took the people who were still in Jerusalem and those who had surrendered earlier and made them captives. He took them and the skilled craftsmen who were left in Jerusalem as captives to Babylon.
16. But Nebuzaradan left some of the poorest people behind in the land. He left them to work in the vineyards and the fields.