Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The siege lasted two years. . . . In 587, Zedekiah had had enough. . . . “The famine had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat,” writes the historian of 2 Kings. “Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, although the Babylonians were surrounding the city. They fled towards the Jordan Valley, but the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. . . . He was captured.” Nebuchadnezzar . . . Had been exasperated into vengeance. When Zedekiah was hauled in front of him in his army camp, he ordered the king’s sons—still children—killed in front of his eyes, and then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, so that the last sight he ever witnessed was the execution of his family. Zedekiah was taken back to Babylon in chains; all of his chief officials and the chief priests were executed just outside the army camp; and Nebuchadnezzar ordered his commander to set Jerusalem on fire. . . . The Jews were resettled all over Babylon, and some fled down to Egypt as well. It was the beginning of a diaspora which lasted for two millennia."