Jerusalem was besieged for a year and a half until "famine was sore in the city." On the 9th of Av all the men of war "fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden," i.e. near the mouth of the Tyropoeon, and the king "went by the way of the Arabah," but was overtaken and captured "in the plains of Jericho." Jerusalem and her Temple were captured and burned with fire, the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, and none but the poorest of the land "to be vinedressers and husbandmen" were left behind (2 Kings 25:8; 2 Chron 36:17).