2 Kings 25:1-9

1In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around.

2The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

3By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the common people had no food.

4Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. As the king made his way along the route to the Arabah,

5the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered.

6The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.

7They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes. Finally, the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him in bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.

8On the seventh day of the fifth month — which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.

9He burned the Lord’s temple, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses.