2 Kings 25:26
And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and came to Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldees. And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and came to Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldees.
The verse stands in the third great section of the history of the kings, the history of the remaining kingdom of Judah after the ten tribes had been swept away, in the record running from the accession of Solomon to the Babylonian captivity. It stands in the closing chapters of Kings that record the wicked and weak reigns of the kings of Judah. It closes the history of the kingdom of Judah.
It belongs to the fuller story of Zedekiah's downfall told in 2 Kings 24 and 25, including the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the rebellion of Zedekiah and the final capture of the nation, and the carrying of many into captivity in Babylon after the kingdom fell to Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah was the last king of God's chosen people; Nebuchadnezzar put out his eyes and carried him to Babylon, where he died in captivity. After this Judah never again had truly independent government, but whatever self-rule it had was only as a province subservient to the great world kingdoms that ruled over it.
After the captivity was completed only a few of the very poor were left in the land as vinedressers and husbandmen, a little company under Gedaliah the son of Ahikam as governor. After Gedaliah, appointed as governor, was murdered through treachery, all the remainder, small and great with the captains of the armies, arose and fled to Egypt for fear of the Chaldees, contrary to the counsel of Jeremiah. By this flight the land was left desolate to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths, for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.