Verse 4
4. The city was broken up Or, broken in. The breach was probably made in the northern wall, for, according to Jeremiah 39:3, “all the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the middle gate” that is, the gate which led from the upper to the lower city. The sight of them in that position took from the king and his chief men all hope of defending the city, and they hastened to effect their escape, having no reason to expect mercy at the hands of their conquerors.
Fled by night Hoping to escape unseen; but too many Chaldean eyes were watching.
The gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden According to Nehemiah 3:15, the king’s garden was by the pool of Siloam, that is, at the mouth of the Tyropoean valley, and the gate between two walls is without doubt the same as “the gate of the fountain.” The two walls are perhaps the same as those mentioned in Isaiah 22:11, and were probably extensions of the city walls in this vicinity to guard the pools or cisterns in a time of danger. As the breach was made in the northern wall of the city, the fugitives would naturally make their escape from the southern or south-eastern gate. The
Chaldees… round about This parenthetical remark is thrown in to show how impossible it was for the fugitives to escape unseen.
Toward the plain The plain of Jericho.
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