Jeremiah 52:1-11

The Reign of Zedekiah

52¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ² He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. ³ For through the anger of Yahweh did it happen in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

The Fall of Jerusalem

⁴ It happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. ⁵ So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. ⁶ In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. ⁷ Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were against the city all around;) and they went toward the Arabah. ⁸ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. ⁹ Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgment on him. ¹⁰ The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he killed also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹ He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.