# Jerusalem is breached and Zedekiah is captured

Exile & Return · Draft · BSB

Content revision: c309b15f5b7a2b0f · No editorial review date recorded

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Date: Judah · Zedekiah’s ninth through eleventh years

Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem from Zedekiah’s ninth year into his eleventh. With famine severe, the city is breached. Zedekiah flees, is captured near Jericho and is taken to Riblah, where his sons are killed before him. He is blinded and taken in chains to Babylon.

This is the final siege, later than Jehoiachin’s surrender in chapter 24. The capture near Jericho, judgment at Riblah and captivity in Babylon are different stages. The brutal treatment of the royal family belongs to the narrative and should not disappear behind a generic exile symbol.

## Primary Scripture

[2 Kings 25:1–7 (BSB)](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%2025%3A1%E2%80%937&version=BSB)

25:1 So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

25:2 And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

25:3 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.

25:4 Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,

25:5 but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army deserted him.

25:6 The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment on him.

25:7 And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

## Related Scripture

[Jeremiah 39:1–10 · parallel](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%2039%3A1%E2%80%9310&version=BSB)

Jeremiah recounts the breach, capture and treatment of those who remain.

## Location evidence

Jerusalem, Jericho and Babylon are identified localities; Riblah remains proposed. The places are shown without an invented escape path or deportation road.

Event map marker: Identified site; \[longitude, latitude\] = \[35.234167, 31.776667\]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.

Jerusalem: Identified site. Coordinates \[longitude, latitude\]: \[35.234167, 31.776667\]. Classification source: editorial.

[OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)](https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a15257a/jerusalem)

Babylon: Identified site. Coordinates \[longitude, latitude\]: \[44.422222, 32.543333\]. Classification source: editorial.

[OpenBible.info: Babylon (CC BY 4.0)](https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a217d18/babylon-1)

Riblah: Proposed site. Coordinates \[longitude, latitude\]: \[36.572623, 34.459547\]. Classification source: editorial.

[OpenBible.info: Riblah (CC BY 4.0)](https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/ab2bde8/riblah-1)

Jericho: Identified site. Coordinates \[longitude, latitude\]: \[35.444564, 31.871719\]. Classification source: editorial.

[OpenBible · site identifications](https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a231f80/jericho-1)

[UNESCO · Tell es-Sultan](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1687/)

[OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)](https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a15257a/jerusalem)

## For the class

How does this account differ from the earlier surrender under Jehoiachin?

## Interpretation and reuse

Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.

Record source: editorial (content/authored/exile-return.json)

Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.

Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm

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