39:1-4
Babylon came and besieged the city. The siege went on for about a year and a half. During that time the conditions would be getting progressively worse and the people more desperate. Water and food would be scarce, even leading to people eating their own children. The hygiene situation would be appalling. Then the city wall was broken through. The Babylonian officials took their seats in the city, representing that they now ran the city. Zedekiah and the soldiers fled toward the Jordan valley (Arabah).
39:5-7
There was no escape, and the Babylonian army pursued the fleeing king and his soldiers. They were captured and taken to the king of Babylon. Zedekiah’s sons and officials were slaughtered before his very eyes. Things were brutal in those days. Zedekiah’s eyes were taken out and he was bound in shackles to be taken to Babylon.
39:8-10
The Babylonians indulged in a general orgy of mayhem and destruction. Most of the people were carried off into exile in Babylon. Only the dregs of society (in the eyes of the Babylonians) were left. These were the poor people who owned nothing. They were given vineyards and fields. One could see this as God restoring some sort of justice for the poor.
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