ירמיהו, פרק ל״ט, פסוק ה׳

The desperate attempt of Judah’s final king to escape the Babylonian army comes to a bitter end. After a frantic flight, enemy forces close the gap and capture the fleeing monarch, setting him on a path to face judgment before the emperor. Commentators offer two distinct perspectives on how the Babylonians managed to track him down. One approach relies on an ancient tradition, suggesting the king escaped through a secret cave that led all the way to the plains of Jericho. At that very moment, a deer happened to run above the cave. The Chaldean soldiers, chasing the deer, arrived at the cave's entrance exactly as the king emerged, leading to his immediate capture [מצודת דוד]. Alternatively, a more practical explanation suggests that he did not flee as an anonymous individual, but was accompanied by his family and royal entourage. Had he run away alone, he might have successfully slipped away, but moving as a large royal party ultimately led to his discovery [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Tragically, despite traveling with this entourage, at the exact moment he was overtaken, he was left completely alone. His entire army had scattered and abandoned him [מצודת דוד].

Following his capture, the soldiers took him far north to Syria rather than putting him on trial in Jerusalem. Although Nebuchadnezzar had been present in Jerusalem at the beginning of the military campaign, the siege dragged on for so long that he eventually left the area and returned to his distant base in northern Syria. Therefore, once the king of Judah was captured, the soldiers had no choice but to transport him to the Babylonian king's current seat of power [רד״ק, מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

Brought before Nebuchadnezzar, the captive king faced a harsh legal confrontation filled with sharp arguments and accusations [מצודת ציון]. The commentators agree that the primary focus of this trial was treason. Since Nebuchadnezzar was the one who had originally placed him on the throne, he confronted the Judean king with a severe accusation: he demanded to know why he had broken their treaty, chosen to rebel, and dared to violate the oath of loyalty he had sworn in the name of God [רש״י, רד״ק, מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ].