Hunger overtakes Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege
About this date: The siege spans Zedekiah's ninth through eleventh years. The endpoint preserves the 587/586 BCE chronological disagreement.
Second Kings describes an exhausted food supply before Jerusalem's wall is breached. Siege warfare reaches civilian households as well as the army.
Historical context
The famine is a detail within the city's fall, distinct from the later destruction of the Temple and the deportation of survivors.
Key points
- The siege is prolonged rather than a single attack.
- The king's flight follows the breach.
- Some poor agricultural workers remain after the deportations.
People
- Zedekiah
- Nebuchadnezzar II
Scripture
- 2 Kings 25:1–12 — The account connects food exhaustion with the city's military collapse.
Sources and further reading
- 2 Kings 25:1–12 (KJV)
Siege, famine, flight, destruction, and people left to cultivate the land.