[CHAPTER XXXVIII]
THE FALL OF JERUSALEM
b.c. 586
2 Kings xxv. 1-21
"In that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all nations."—Zech. xii. 3.
"An end is come, the end is come; it awaketh against thee: behold the end is come."—Ezek. vii. 6.
"Behold yon sterile spot
Where now the wandering Arab's tent
Flaps in the desert blast;
There once old Salem's haughty fane
Reared high to heaven its thousand golden domes,
And in the blushing face of day
Exposed its shameful glory."
Shelley.
After the siege had lasted for a year and a half, all but one day, at midnight the besiegers made a breach in the northern city wall.[867] It was a day of terrible remembrance, and throughout the exile it was observed as a solemn fast.[868]
Nebuchadrezzar was no longer in person before the walls. He had other war-like operations and other sieges on hand—the sieges of Tyre, Asekah, and Lachish—as well as Jerusalem. He had therefore established his headquarters at Lachish, and did not superintend the final operations against the city.[869] But now that all had become practically hopeless, and the capture of the rest of Jerusalem was only a matter of a few days more, Zedekiah and his few best surviving princes and soldiers fled by night through the opposite quarter of the city. There was a little unwatched postern between two walls near the king's garden, and through this he and his escort fled, hoping to reach the Arabah, and make good his escape, perhaps to the Wady-el-Arish, which he could reach in five hours, through the wilds beyond the Jordan.[870] The heads of the king and his followers were muffled, and they carried on their shoulders their choicest possessions.[871] But he was betrayed by some of the mean deserters,[872] and pursued by the Chaldæans. His movements were doubtless impeded by the presence of his harem and his children. His little band of warriors could offer no resistance, and fled in all directions. Zedekiah, his family, and attendants were taken prisoners, and carried to Riblah to appear before the mighty conqueror.[873] Nebuchadrezzar showed no pity towards one whom he had elevated to the throne, and who had violated his most solemn assurances by intriguing with his enemies. He brought him to trial, and doomed him to witness with his own eyes the massacre of his two sons and of his attendants. After he had endured this anguish, worse than death, his eyes were put out, and, bound in double fetters,[874] he was sent to Babylon, where he ended his miserable days. To blind a king deprived him of all hope of recovering the throne, and was therefore in ancient days a common punishment.[875] The LXX. adds that he was sent by the Babylonians to grind a mill—εἰς οἰκίον μυλῶνος. This is probably a reminiscence of the blinded Samson. But thus were fulfilled with startling literalness two prophecies which might well have seemed to be contradictory.[876] For Jeremiah had said (xxxiv. 3),—
"Thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the King of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon."
Whereas Ezekiel had said (xii. 13),—