And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.
The king's garden. The "gate" to it from the upper city above was appropriated to the kings alone; "stairs" led down from Mount Zion and the palace to the king's garden below (Nehemiah 3:15).
By the gate between the two walls. Zedekiah might have held the upper city longer, but want of provisions drove him to flee, by the double wall south of Zion, toward the plains of Jericho (Jeremiah 39:5), in order to escape beyond Jordan to Arabia Deserta. He broke an opening in the wall to get out (Ezekiel 12:12).