Lehi and his family apparently fled from Jerusalem in "the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah" (1 Nephi 1:4, 2:1-4). According to the Bible (2 Chronicles 36:11), Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he was made king over the kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, the leader of the Babylonian empire. However, the exact date of Zedekiah's ascension to the throne is not mentioned in the Bible, although nearly all of the scholars agree it must have been within a few years of 600 B.C. The Book of Mormon seems to indicate that the year 600 B.C. is correct for the departure of Lehi from Jerusalem. (See 1 Nephi 10:4 and 19:8.)