4. The enemy broke through the city walls, and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley.
5. But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho, and his entire army deserted him.
6. They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where he passed sentence on him.
7. Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. The king of Babylon then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.
8. On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.
9. He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house.
10. The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.
11. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.
12. But he left behind some of the poor of the land and gave them fields and vineyards.