Jeremiah 39:1–18 brings this section of Jeremiah to a close as it recounts the fall of Jerusalem. According to the opening verse of the chapter the Babylonian siege began in the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign and in the fourth month of the eleventh year of his reign a breach was made in the city.
Commentators debate which calendar is being used by the writer, but it is most likely that the siege began in January of 588 BC and the city finally fell eighteen months later in July 587 BC1. No details about how the city fell are given because the main purpose of the narrative is to describe the fate of certain people, that is, Zedekiah, the citizens of Jerusalem, Jeremiah and Ebed-melech2.
1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it.