Jerusalem's Final Siege Begins Jan 15

The ninth year of Zedekiah, by Jewish fall—to—fall reckoning, was 589/88 b.c. The tenth month of the Jewish year corresponds roughly to our January. On the day the siege of Jerusalem began, the Lord revealed this fact to Ezekiel in Babylonia (Eze. 24:1—14). The tenth of the tenth month in 588 b.c. can be dated with reasonable accuracy to Jan. 15 by the Babylonian calendar, though the Jewish reckoning of this month may have differed.

Not only was Jerusalem besieged, but parts of the army were sent against "all the cities of Judah that were left" (Jer. 34:7). Siegeworks, including sloping ramparts of earth from which battering—rams could attack the upper and weaker portions of the walls, and movable towers, to bring the attackers on a level with the defenders on the city walls. For details of the terrible siege, see Jer. 37, 38, 39. By the fourth month a famine had become so severe that defense was no longer possible. Mothers ate their own children in the extremity, and the skin of the sufferers became black and parched (Lam. 2:11, 12, 19, 20 4:3—10 5:10). The Lord had warned His people that such terrible conditions would be the result of transgression (Lev. 26:29 Deut. 28:53—57 Jer. 14:12—16 15:2 27:8, 13 Eze. 4:16, 17 5:10, 12).