ירמיהו, פרק ל״ט, פסוק ד׳

The fall of Jerusalem reaches its breaking point as enemy forces finally penetrate the city. Under the cover of darkness, the king and his warriors make a desperate attempt to slip through the siege and flee toward the eastern desert. From a military standpoint, maintaining an airtight blockade around an entire city is exceedingly difficult. Because the Babylonian army focused their breaching efforts on specific sections of the wall, they naturally left unguarded gaps in their surrounding troop formations. The king and his entourage took advantage of these blind spots to slip out unnoticed [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. This nighttime breakout effectively acts as a second breaching of the city walls, this time from the inside out [מלבי״ם].

Regarding the exact path of the escape, commentators offer two distinct perspectives. The straightforward approach suggests that the fleeing party took a surface route passing near the royal garden, exiting through a gate positioned between the two city walls [מצודת דוד]. In contrast, the Midrashic tradition describes a highly secretive, underground escape. According to this view, King Zedekiah utilized a hidden tunnel that stretched all the way from his residence in Jerusalem to the distant plains of Jericho, allowing him to travel completely unseen [רש״י, רד״ק].

However, the king's eventual capture at the end of this tunnel was not a mere coincidence. It was a direct act of divine providence, orchestrated by God to ensure the prophecies of doom against the king were fulfilled. God sent a deer to walk above the underground cave, catching the attention of the Chaldean soldiers outside the city. As the soldiers chased the animal across the landscape, the pursuit led them directly to the cave's exit. They arrived at the precise moment the king emerged from the earth, leading to his immediate capture [רש״י, רד״ק].

The ultimate goal of the fleeing group was to reach the arid desert region [מצודת ציון]. By heading toward the plains of Jericho [מצודת דוד], the king and his men likely intended to cross the river entirely and find refuge on the eastern side of the Jordan [ביאור שטיינזלץ].