Bible Strands
2 Kings 25:4
Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the final collapse of Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege, specifically on the ninth day of the fourth month when famine had crippled the population. The account captures the immediate moment the Chaldean forces breach the walls and the royal defenders attempt a desperate nocturnal escape.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַתִּבָּקֵעַ (vatibbaqeaʿ, H1234) literally means "it was broken into" or "was breached," marking the sudden failure of the city's fortifications. The phrase דֶּרֶךְ שַׁעַר (derekh shaʿar, H1870/H8179) specifies the "way of the gate," identifying the exact escape corridor between the inner and outer walls near the king's garden.
The thread — The military rout and urban destruction directly fulfill the covenant warnings of Leviticus 26:17 and 26:36 regarding enemy defeat and the terror inflicted on survivors. The event parallels the exile chronology in Ezekiel 33:21, where a fugitive arrives to report that Jerusalem has been struck down.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that covenant failure produced the exact military and famine conditions forewarned in the law. It requires the reader to trace the direct line from Israel's disobedience to the historical execution of siege, flight, and exile without softening the causal chain.
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The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 33:21 In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and reported, “The city has been taken!”
- Leviticus 26:17 And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.
- Leviticus 26:36 As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.
- Deuteronomy 28:25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
- Deuteronomy 32:24 They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.
- Deuteronomy 32:30 How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- 2 Kings 25:5 but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army deserted him.
- Nehemiah 3:15 The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallun son of Col-hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah. He rebuilt it, roofed it, and installed its doors, bolts, and bars. He also repaired the wall of the Pool of Shelah near the king’s garden, as far as the stairs that descend from the City of David.
- Jeremiah 5:10 Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the LORD.
- Jeremiah 39:2 And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city was breached.