²⁰ He deported those who escaped from the sword to Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the rise of the Persian^[a] kingdom.^(A)

¹⁹ When people ask, ‘For what offense has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ You will respond to them: Just as you abandoned Me^(A) and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.^(B)

The Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon

39 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to it. ² In the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the city was broken into. ³ All the officials of the king of Babylon entered and sat at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar, Nebusarsechim^[a] the Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer the Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of Babylon’s king.

⁴ When he saw them, Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls. They left along the route to the Arabah.^{(A) 5} However, the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains^[b] of Jericho, arrested him, and brought him to Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s king, at Riblah in the land of Hamath. The king passed sentence on him there.

⁶ At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all Judah’s nobles. ⁷ Then he blinded Zedekiah and put him in bronze chains to take him to Babylon.^{(B) 8} The Chaldeans next burned down the king’s palace and the people’s houses and tore down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹ Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards,^(C) deported the rest of the people to Babylon—those who had remained in the city and those deserters who had defected to him along with the rest of the people who had remained.