“When King Zedekiah
Of Judah,
With all the soldiers
Saw the Babylonians,
They fled.
They went out of the city
At night
By way of the king’s garden
Through the gate
Between the two walls.
They went toward the Arabah.
But the army of the Chaldeans
Pursued them.
They overtook King Zedekiah
In the plains of Jericho.
When they had taken him,
They brought him up
To King Nebuchadnezzar
Of Babylon,
At Riblah,
In the land of Hamath.
He passed sentence on him.”
This is pretty much the same as in 2 Kings, chapter 25. The king and his army escaped through a hole in the wall via the king’s garden. They were headed for Arabah, the Jordan River valley, but the Chaldeans caught them in the plains of Jericho, about 5 miles from Jerusalem. In 2 Kings, chapter 24, the Judean troops scattered and deserted the king, but there is no mention of that here. They then brought the king and his army officials to King Nebuchadnezzar, who was at Riblah in Hamath, north of Jerusalem, almost on the Syrian border.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 