In 586 b.c., Babylonian engineers build sloped dirt siege ramps outside Jerusalem. Famine drains the muscle from the trapped population. The summer heat bakes the limestone walls as the last grain supplies fail. Men tear down the city fortifications with iron tools and brute labor. Thick smoke chokes the air above the broken gates. The survivors endure terrible fear and deep physical exhaustion. Despite the absolute ruin, a quiet consolation eventually reaches a captive king.
King Nebuchadnezzar orders his captain Nebuzaradan to dismantle the capital. Soldiers burn the temple of the Lord to the bedrock. They smash the twenty-seven-foot bronze pillars and the large bronze basin into scrap metal. They carry over eighty thousand pounds of this bronze back to Babylon. King Zedekiah tries to escape through a garden gate at night. Enemy troops capture him in the dry plains of Jericho. They execute his sons in front of him. They blind him and bind him in heavy bronze shackles. Survival under siege requires absolute submission to the empire. The mechanics of war crush the rebellion completely.
The invading army treats the structural bronze entirely as an industrial resource. They strip the decorative metal networks and pomegranates from the pillar capitals. Invaders consistently destroy sacred architecture to fund their military campaigns. Men tear away holy objects to forge common weapons. Starvation and panic push the remaining Judean farmers to abandon their fields.
A broken wall provides no shelter, and a stubborn leader guarantees the destruction of his own city.
The Babylonians left behind only the poorest rural laborers to work the vineyards and fields. Thirty-seven years later, the Babylonian ruler released Jehoiachin from prison and gave him a daily royal allowance of grain and sesame oil.