Nebuchadnezzar’s army laid siege to Jerusalem in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month. So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
The siege lasted, therefore, for 18 months. It ended in July 587 BC when the food had finally run out in Jerusalem and the walls were breached.
Conditions in Jerusalem became desperate as food became scarce (Lamentations 2:12;Lamentations 4:4, Lamentations 4:9–10). Ezekiel’s vision of the siege spoke of cannibalism (Ezekiel 5:1–17), which was not uncommon in times of siege.1 Jeremiah had often described the coming invasion of the Babylonians as sword, famine, and plague.
That is exactly what Jerusalem experienced as people died in battle but even more died of hunger and disease.
5 La ville fut assiégée jusqu'à la onzième année du roi Sédécias.