Bible Strands
2 Kings 25:1
So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon leads his full army against Jerusalem in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, specifically on the tenth day of the tenth month. The text records the precise start of the military encampment and siege wall construction outside the city.
The words — וַ/יְהִי (va/y.Hi) translates literally as “and it was,” anchoring the event in chronological sequence, while בֶ/עָשׂוֹר (be./'a.Sor) means “on the ten,” specifying the exact calendar day of the campaign.
The thread — Jeremiah 52:4 repeats this identical date and military action, confirming the historical record across prophetic and historical books. Isaiah 29:3 uses parallel siege imagery, while 1 Chronicles 6:15 places the event within the broader exile narrative.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that national collapse occurred at a documented time under a specific foreign ruler. It requires the reader to confront the reality of historical accountability without spiritualizing the military facts.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 52:4 So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.
- 1 Chronicles 6:15 Jehozadak went into captivity when the LORD sent Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.
- Isaiah 29:3 I will camp in a circle around you; I will besiege you with towers and set up siege works against you.
- Jeremiah 34:1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, all his army, all the earthly kingdoms under his control, and all the other nations were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding cities.
- Jeremiah 43:10 Then tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones that I have embedded, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them.
- 2 Kings 24:1 During Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded. So Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, until he turned and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar.
- 2 Kings 24:10 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.
- 2 Chronicles 36:17 So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,
- Jeremiah 27:8 As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and does not place its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation by sword and famine and plague, declares the LORD, until I have destroyed it by his hand.
- Jeremiah 32:24 See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What You have spoken has happened, as You now see!