But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king
Not finding him in his palace, and being informed of his flight, and which way he took: and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho:
(See Gill on Jeremiah 39:5); and all his army was scattered from him;
when they saw the enemy pursuing them, and near unto them, they left him, as Josephus F17 says, and shifted for themselves.