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On the ninth day of the month,[a] when famine had gripped the city, and the people of the land had no more food, the city walls were breached. That night, all the soldiers came to the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden (the Chaldeans had the city surrounded), while the king went toward the Arabah.[b] But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook him in the desert near Jericho, abandoned by his whole army.

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Footnotes

  1. 25:3 Ninth day of the month: the text does not say which month, but Jer 39:2 and 52:6 set the breaching of the city walls in the fourth month; in later times that was the date of a fast commemorating the event (cf. Zec 8:19). People of the land: the influential citizens (see note on 11:14); even they, whose resources went beyond those of the ordinary people, were starving.
  2. 25:4 The Hebrew text of this verse is missing some words. The present translation is based on a likely reconstruction.