The Fall of Jerusalem

251 Now in the ninth year of his reign , on the tenth day of the tenth month , Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came , he and all his army , against Jerusalem , camped against it and built a siege wall all around it. 2 So the city was under siege until the eleventh e year of King Zedekiah . 3 On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land . 4 Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls beside the king's garden , though the Chaldeans were all around the city . And they went by way of the Arabah . 5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho and all his army was scattered from him. 6 Then they captured the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah , and he passed sentence on him. 7 They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes , then put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon .

Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Kings 25:1-7

Commentary on 2 Kings 25:1-7

(Read 2 Kings 25:1-7)

Jerusalem was so fortified, that it could not be taken till famine rendered the besieged unable to resist. In the prophecy and Lamentations of Jeremiah, we find more of this event; here it suffices to say, that the impiety and misery of the besieged were very great. At length the city was taken by storm. The king, his family, and his great men escaped in the night, by secret passages. But those deceive themselves who think to escape God's judgments, as much as those who think to brave them. By what befell Zedekiah, two prophecies, which seemed to contradict each other, were both fulfilled. Jeremiah prophesied that Zedekiah should be brought to Babylon, Ezekiel 12:13. He was brought thither, but his eyes being put out, he did not see it.