2 Kings 25:4

And the city was broken up R.V. Then a breach was made in the city. The old phrase -broken up" was the same in sense as -broken through". See 2 Chronicles 24:7; Jeremiah 39:7; Micah 2:13; Matthew 24:43; Mark 2:4.

We have a more full account of the events here alluded to in Jeremiah 39:2-7. There we learn that when the breach had been made the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the middle gate, and when Zedekiah saw them he and his men of war fled.

the men of warfled by night The verb is supplied, but appears in the text of Jeremiah 39:4; Jeremiah 52:7. The scribe in this passage has been much at fault.

by the way of the gate between two[R.V. the two] walls This was a definite locality. The A.V. translates as R.V. in Jeremiah 39 From its proximity to the king's garden, this gate must be the same which is called in Nehemiah 2:14; Nehemiah 3:15, -the gate of the fountain". It was close to the pool of Siloam, and so the way through it would lead down to the Kidron valley.

whichis [R.V. was] by the king's garden The past tense suits the narrative and its date better. Whether the king's garden was outside or within the walls does not appear.

andthe king went the way[R.V. by the way] toward the plain R.V. of the Arabah. See note on 2 Kings 14:25. The whole valley from the sea of Galilee southward to the desert was called by this name. On the character of this flight compare the words of Ezekiel 12:12.