The Babylonian army finally broke through the walls of Jerusalem and took control of it very quickly. All the men of war fled and went out from the city by night by the way of a gate between the two walls by the king’s garden.
Zedekiah is not mentioned, but Jeremiah 39:4 makes it clear that he led this escape from Jerusalem. All the men of war
seems to refer to the soldiers who were with Zedekiah in his headquarters.1 All of this took place even while the city was surrounded by the Chaldeans, but somehow Zedekiah and his soldiers found a way out. They tried to escape to the Jordan Valley to the west of Jerusalem, but Nebuchadnezzar’s army pursued them and overtook them in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah is captured and taken to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. Riblah was a city in Syria on the Orontes River and it was Nebuchadnezzar’s base for his military action in the region. Nebuchadnezzar dealt with a rebellious vassal king with his typical ruthlessness. He slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah.
Zedekiah had taken his family and many of his officials with him when he fled Jerusalem, and they are slaughtered in front of him. The slaughter of those closest to him is the last thing he sees before Nebuchadnezzar has Zedekiah’s eyes removed and then takes him in chains to Babylon where he is thrown into prison until his death. Keeping Zedekiah alive in this way would have provided a suitable object lesson in victory parades in Babylon.
2
8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.