The Fall of Jerusalem

Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, has rebelled against Babylon. In the ninth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar comes and lays siege to Jerusalem, building siege works all around it. The siege lasts until the eleventh year, and famine crushes the city. The city wall is breached: Zedekiah flees by night with his soldiers, but the Chaldeans overtake him on the plains of Jericho. At Riblah, his sons are slain before his eyes; then his eyes are put out, and he is led in chains to Babylon. Soon after, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, burns the house of the LORD, the king’s palace, and the houses of Jerusalem, and tears down its walls. The bronze pillars and the bronze Sea of the temple are broken up and carried off. “So Judah was carried away out of their land.” Yet a glimmer remains: thirty-seven years after his exile, King Jehoiachin is released from prison and eats at the table of the king of Babylon.