2 Kings 25:1

25:1 So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside ¹  it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. ² 

2 Kings 25:4

25:4 The enemy broke through the city walls, ³  and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. ⁴  They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. ⁵  (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ⁶ 

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¹ tn Or “against.”

² sn This would have been Jan 15, 588 b.c. The reckoning is based on the calendar that begins the year in the spring (Nisan = March/April).

³ tn Heb “the city was breached.”

⁴ tn The Hebrew text is abrupt here: “And all the men of war by the night.” The translation attempts to capture the sense.

⁵ sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.

⁶ sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from Jer 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.