The Temple Falls
- In the ninth year of his reign, Zedekiah rebels and Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem for two whole years.
- The famine grows extremely severe in a short period of time
- Zedekiah tries to escape at night with his soldiers, but he gets captured by the Babylonians (Chaldeans) before they make it very far.
- The Chaldeans kill Zedekiah's sons before his eyes, stab his eyes out, and take him in chains to Babylon.
- Nebuchadnezzar's captain of the bodyguard, Nebuzaradan, comes to Jerusalem and burns down the Temple, the King's palace, and all the houses of the city.
- The Babylonian army tears down the city walls. Nebuzaradan takes all the remaining people to Babylon—except for the very poorest, who still remain to be vinedressers and do farmwork.
Brunch with the King
- The Chaldeans break the bronze pillars that were in the Temple and carry them to Babylon.
- They completely loot all the remaining silver and gold from the Temple, stripping away all the treasures and bringing them to Babylon.
- Nebuzaradan sends the two highest priests of the Temple and the three guardians of the Temple's threshold to Babylon, where Nebuchadnezzar has them put to death.
- Shaphan's grandson, Gedaliah, becomes the new governor of Judah, which has been virtually emptied out and put in exile.
- Gedaliah tells some of the remaining warriors of Judah to put down their weapons and live peacefully under Babylon's rule.
- They do this for a while, but then a warrior named Ishmael leads ten men to kill Gedaliah.
- The remaining people then run away to Egypt, afraid of what the Babylonians will do to them as punishment.
- After thirty-seven years of exile and imprisonment, Jehoiachin is freed by King Evil-merodoch of Babylon. The king lets Jehoiachin eat at his own table in luxury and also gives him a generous, regular allowance.