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Now the city was taken on the ninth day of the fourth month, in the
eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah. They were indeed only generals
of the king of Babylon, to whom Nebuchadnezzar committed the care of the
siege, for he abode himself in the city of Riblah. The names of these generals
who ravaged and subdued Jerusalem, if any one desire to know them, were
these: Nergal Sharezer, Samgar Nebo, Rabsaris, Sorsechim, and Rabmag. And
when the city was taken about midnight, and the enemy's generals were entered
into the temple, and when Zedekiah was sensible of it, he took his wives,
and his children, and his captains, and his friends, and with them fled
out of the city, through the fortified ditch, and through the desert; and
when certain of the deserters had informed the Babylonians of this, at
break of day, they made haste to pursue after Zedekiah, and overtook him
not far from Jericho, and encompassed him about. But for those friends
and captains of Zedekiah who had fled out of the city with him, when they
saw their enemies near them, they left him, and dispersed themselves, some
one way, and some another, and every one resolved to save himself; so the
enemy took Zedekiah alive, when he was deserted by all but a few, with
his children and his wives, and brought him to the king. When he was come,
Nebuchadnezzar began to call him a wicked wretch, and a covenant-breaker,
and one that had forgotten his former words, when he promised to keep the
country for him. He also reproached him for his ingratitude, that when
he had received the kingdom from him, who had taken it from Jehoiachin,
and given it to him, he had made use of the power he gave him against him
that gave it; "but," said he, "God is great, who hated that
conduct of thine, and hath brought thee under us." And when he had
used these words to Zedekiah, he commanded his sons and his friends to
be slain, while Zedekiah and the rest of the captains looked on; after
which he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him, and carried him to
Babylon. And these things happened to him,
1
as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold to him, that he should be caught,
and brought before the king of Babylon, and should speak to him face to
face, and should see his eyes with his own eyes; and thus far did Jeremiah
prophesy. But he was also made blind, and brought to Babylon, but did not
see it, according to the prediction of Ezekiel.