1. Now it came to pass in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his entire army advanced against Jerusalem, set up camp by it, and built a siege wall all around it.
2. So the city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
3. On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe in the city that there was no bread for the common people.
4. Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled by night by the way of the gate between the double walls near the king’s garden—though the Chaldeans were all around the city—and they went by the way to the Arabah.
5. But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him.
6. So they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and passed sentence on him.
7. They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, then put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in bronze chains and took him to Babylon.
8. Now on the seventh day of the fifth month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the imperial guard, officer of the Babylonian king, came to Jerusalem.
9. He burned down the House of Adonai, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem—every notable building he burned with fire.
10. Then the whole Chaldean army that was with the captain of the guard demolished the walls of Jerusalem on every side.
11. Then the remnant of the people who were left in the city—the deserters who had defected to the Babylonian king and the rest of the populace—Nebuzaradan captain of the guard exiled them.
12. But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and field hands.
13. Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars that were in the House of Adonai, the stands and the bronze sea that were in the House of Adonai, and carried their bronze away to Babylon.
14. They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the pans and all the bronze vessels that were used in Temple service.
15. The captain of the guard took away the fire pans and the basins—whatever was gold or silver.