¹⁶ ‘This is what the Lord says: I am going to bring disaster^(A) on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book^(B) the king of Judah has read. ¹⁷ Because they have forsaken^(C) me and burned incense to other gods and aroused my anger by all the idols their hands have made,^[a] my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.’ ¹⁸ Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire^(D) of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: ¹⁹ Because your heart was responsive and you humbled^(E) yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curse^[b](F) and be laid waste^(G)—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord.

⁴ Then the city wall was broken through,^(A) and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians^[a] were surrounding^(B) the city. They fled toward the Arabah,^{[b] 5} but the Babylonian^[c] army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered,^{(C) 6} and he was captured.^(D)

He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah,^(E) where sentence was pronounced on him. ⁷ They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.^(F)

⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹ He set fire^(G) to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down.^{(H) 10} The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls^(I) around Jerusalem. ¹¹ Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile^(J) the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon.^(K)