So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
Jerusalem remained under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. Taken with the dates in verses 4 and 6, the siege lasted about a year and a half. After Babylon briefly withdrew to confront an Egyptian relief force, it renewed the siege as a complete blockade, and the city fell about a year and a half later.
The end of that siege marked the completion of Judah's captivity and the destruction of the city. The besieging and destruction described in the chapter, including this prolonged siege, came to pass within a few years as God's judgment because the people would not keep the Sabbath holy. This fulfilled the earlier prophecy that Jerusalem would stand forever if they bore no burdens on the Sabbath but would be destroyed if they refused to listen.
The account to which the verse belongs, together with the fall of Babylon, stands as a lesson and warning to cities that forget and defy God.
Jerusalem remained under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. Taken with the dates in verses 4 and 6, the siege lasted about a year and a half. After Babylon briefly withdrew to confront an Egyptian relief force, it renewed the siege as a complete blockade, and the city fell about a year and a half later.
The end of that siege marked the completion of Judah's captivity and the destruction of the city. The besieging and destruction described in the chapter, including this prolonged siege, came to pass within a few years as God's judgment because the people would not keep the Sabbath holy. This fulfilled the earlier prophecy that Jerusalem would stand forever if they bore no burdens on the Sabbath but would be destroyed if they refused to listen.
The account to which the verse belongs, together with the fall of Babylon, stands as a lesson and warning to cities that forget and defy God.