6. Jerusalem is Captured
Nebuchadnezzar Makes Jerusalem a Heap of Ruins
"2 Kings 24:13 - "And Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said. 14 - And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, [even] ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land."
Jerusalem was besieged for a year and a half until "famine was sore in the city." On the 9th of Av all the men of war "fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden," i.e. near the mouth of the Tyropoeon, and the king "went by the way of the Arabah," but was overtaken and captured "in the plains of Jericho." Jerusalem and her Temple were captured and burned with fire, the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, and none but the poorest of the land "to be vinedressers and husbandmen" were left behind (2 Kings 25:8; 2 Chron 36:17).
2 Kings 25:8 - And in the fifth month, on the seventh [day] of the month, which [is] the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: 9 - And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great [man's] house burnt he with fire.
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