And the city was broken up, and all the men of war [fled] by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which [is] by the king's garden: (now the Chaldees [were] against the city round about:) and [the king] went the way toward the plain.
Ver. 4. And the city was broken up] a By the besiegers, who had seized upon the middle gate. Jer 39:3 Cajetan holdeth that it was broken up by the citizens, that by the breach they might escape. Hunger, we say, breaketh through stone walls.
And all the men of war … fled.] This word "fled" is not in the text, but supplied from Jeremiah 39:4 ut intelligamus fugam fuisse praecipitem, saith Vatablus, to set forth the hastiness and headlongness of their flight: but in fleeing from death they fled to it.
By night.] All this was foretold. Eze 12:12
By the way towards the plain.] By a way underground, b say the Hebrews, into which the secret gate led them: by a deep valley between mountains, saith Josephus.
Now the Chaldees.] See on 2 Kings 25:1 .
a Crebris ictibus arietum. - Vat.
b φευδοθυρον .