In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month; that is, June/July of 587 or 586 B.C. This phrase could also be expressed as “After Zedekiah had been king ten years, on the ninth day of the fourth month.”

A breach was made in the city is better expressed as “the city walls were broken through” (Good News Translation). In languages that have to name an agent, translators can say, for example, “the Babylonians [or, they] broke through the walls of the city.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .