2 Kings 25

2 Kings 25:1-3 . JERUSALEM AGAIN BESIEGED.

1. Nebuchadnezzar . . . came . . . against Jerusalem--Incensed by the revolt of Zedekiah, the Assyrian despot determined to put an end to the perfidious and inconstant monarchy of Judea. This chapter narrates his third and last invasion, which he conducted in person at the head of an immense army, levied out of all the tributary nations under his sway. Having overrun the northern parts of the country and taken almost all the fenced cities ( Jeremiah 34:7 ), he marched direct to Jerusalem to invest it. The date of the beginning as well as the end of the siege is here carefully marked (compare Ezekiel 24:1 , Jeremiah 39:1 , 52:4-6 ); from which it appears, that, with a brief interruption caused by Nebuchadnezzar's marching to oppose the Egyptians who were coming to its relief but who retreated without fighting, the siege lasted a year and a half. So long a resistance was owing, not to the superior skill and valor of the Jewish soldiers, but to the strength of the city fortifications, on which the king too confidently relied (compare Jeremiah 21:1-14,37:1-38:28').
pitched against it, and . . . built forts--rather, perhaps, drew lines of circumvallation, with a ditch to prevent any going out of the city. On this rampart were erected his military engines for throwing missiles into the city.

3. on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed--In consequence of the close and protracted blockade, the inhabitants were reduced to dreadful extremities; and under the maddening influence of hunger, the most inhuman atrocities were perpetrated ( Lamentations 2:20 Lamentations 2:22 , Lamentations 4:9 Lamentations 4:10 , Ezekiel 5:10 ). This was a fulfilment of the prophetic denunciations threatened on the apostasy of the chosen people ( Leviticus 26:29 , Deuteronomy 28:53-57 , Jeremiah 15:2 , 27:13 , Ezekiel 4:16 ).

2 Kings 25:4-30 . ZEDEKIAH TAKEN.

4. the city was broken up--that is, a breach was effected, as we are elsewhere informed, in a part of the wall belonging to the lower city ( 2 Chronicles 32:5 , 33:14 ).
the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden--The king's garden was ( Nehemiah 3:15 ) at the pool of Siloam, that is, at the mouth of the Tyropæon. A trace of the outermost of these walls appears to be still extant in the rude pathway which crosses the mouth of the Tyropæon, on a mound hard by the old mulberry tree, which marks the traditional spot of Isaiah's martyrdom [ROBINSON]. It is probable that the besiegers had overlooked this pass.
the king went . . . toward the plain--that is, the Ghor, or valley of Jordan, estimated at five hours' distance from Jerusalem. The plain near Jericho is about eleven or twelve miles broad.