Babylonian Siege of Jerusalem

Description

Nebuchadnezzar’s army closed on Jerusalem from the north—the easiest ground and the least protected approaches. They ringed the city with siege works, cutting off roads and farms. They threw up dirt berms for archers and slingers to hide behind and harass anyone on the walls.

Digging under the wall

Engineers went to work first. Sappers tunneled toward the foundations, propping their shafts with wood and then burning the supports so soil and stones collapsed—undermining battered sections of the wall.

At the same time, crews dragged up battering rams under leather-and-wood “tortoise” covers, smashing at vulnerable gates and curtain walls while shielded from arrows.

Across the line, Babylonians built siege ramps made of packed earth reinforced with timber. This allowed towers and rams to roll close.

Siege towers lifted archers and javelin men to near wall height, giving them downward fire into parapets while hook-poles tore at crumbling parts of the wall. Night after night, labor battalions extended the ramps and pushed the engines a little nearer. Inside the city, defenders tried counter-tactics: burning the ramps, throwing down stones, lighting pitch to set the ram shelters aflame, and digging counter-mines to meet the sappers underground and kill them.

Starving in Jerusalem

Starvation did the slow work. With fields lost and supply lines cut, Jerusalem weakened. When a breach came—likely along the northern line where the ground favored the attackers—Babylonian shock troops surged through while archers on the towers raked the wall-walks to keep defenders’ heads down. Infantry forced the opening wider, gates were flung or burned, and the fight turned to streets and courtyards. Babylonian officials then “sat in the Middle Gate,” a sign the line was taken and command had moved inside.

Resistance falls apart

After resistance collapsed, Nebuzaradan, the field commander, reduced what remained: palaces and key administrative buildings burned, Temple treasures seized, city walls partly pulled down to keep Jerusalem from rising again. Survivors were sorted—leaders punished, skilled people deported, poor left to work the land. The campaign shows classic Near Eastern siege craft: surround, starve, sap, smash, and then occupy—methodical, engineered, and relentless.