Three months later the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II, returning from the north, deposed Jehoahaz in favor of his older brother, Jehoiakim.

According to the Hebrew Bible, Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he was made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II in 597 BC.

This is in agreement with a Babylonian chronicle, which states,The seventh year: In the month Kislev the king of Akkad mustered his army and marched to Hattu.

Despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah, Baruch ben Neriah and other family and advisors—and ignoring the example of his older brother Jehoiakim—Zedekiah entered into an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra of Egypt and revolted against Babylon.

During this siege "every worst woe befell the city, which drank the cup of God's fury to the dregs" (2 Kings 25:3; Lamentations 4:4, 5).

After laying siege to the city for about thirty months, Nebuchadnezzar finally succeeded in capturing Jerusalem in 586 BC.

Then his eyes were put out and he was loaded with chains and carried captive to Babylon (2 Kings 25:1–7; Jeremiah 32:4–5; 34:2–3; 39:1–7; 52:4–11; Ezekiel 12:13), where he remained a prisoner until he died.

God speaks through Jeremiah and notes that Zedekiah did what was right by freeing the Hebrew slaves, but he broke his own covenant by allowing them to be re-enslaved.

(34) Zedekiah sends Jehucal, the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the priest to ask Jeremiah to pray for them when Apries's army had threatened the Babylonians enough to retreat from sieging Jerusalem.

Jeremiah pleads that he will die if he is sent back to Jonathan's house so Zedekiah transferred him to the court of the guard and ordered that a loaf of bread be given to him daily.

Ebed-melech, a servant, heard this and went to Zedekiah (who was at the Benjamin Gate) to tell him that Jeremiah would die if he wasn't saved from the pit.

Jeremiah then warns Zedekiah again that he shall be spared if he obeys God and surrenders to Babylon, but if he doesn't Jerusalem will be destroyed and he will not escape from Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar transferred the administrative center from Jerusalem to Mizpah and appointed Gedaliah ben Aḥikam as governor of the province, under the watchful eye of a Babylonian guard (2 Kings 25:22–24, Jeremiah 40:6–8).

Since Judean regnal years were measured from Tishrei in the fall, this would place the end of his reign and the capture of the city in the summer of 586 BC.

These Babylonian records related to Jeconiah's reign are consistent with the fall of the city in 587 but not in 586, thus supporting Albright's date.

[citation needed] Nevertheless, scholars who assume that Zedekiah's reign should be calculated by accession reckoning continue to adhere to the 586 date.

[citation needed] According to the Book of Mormon, a religious text in the Latter Day Saint movement, Zedekiah had a son named Mulek, who escaped death and traveled across the ocean to the Americas, where he founded the Mulekite nation.