2 Kings 24:15

And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) And he carried away.—The form of the verb is different from that in 2Kings 24:14. We might render: “Yea, he carried away;” for 2Kings 24:15-16 simply give the particulars of what was stated generally in 2Kings 24:14. In the present verse the “princes” are defined.

He carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother.—Fulfilment of Jeremiah 22:24-27.

The mighty of the land.—So the Targum, “the magnates of the land.” All who could do so, must have taken refuge in Jerusalem at the approach of the Chaldæan army.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:8-20 Jehoiachin reigned but three months, yet long enough to show that he justly smarted for his fathers' sins, for he trod in their steps. His uncle was intrusted with the government. This Zedekiah was the last of the kings of Judah. Though the judgments of God upon the three kings before him might have warned him, he did that which was evil, like them. When those intrusted with the counsels of a nation act unwisely, and against their true interest, we ought to notice the displeasure of God in it. It is for the sins of a people that God hides from them the things that belong to the public peace. And in fulfilling the secret purposes of his justice, the Lord needs only leave men to the blindness of their own minds, or to the lusts of their own hearts. The gradual approach of Divine judgments affords sinners space for repentance, and believers leisure to prepare for meeting the calamity, while it shows the obstinacy of those who will not forsake their sins.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The mighty of the land - Or "the great," "the powerful." The word used is quite distinct from that in 2 Kings 24:14, 2 Kings 24:16. It refers, not to bodily strength or fitness for war, hut to civil rank or dignity. The term would include all civil and all ecclesiastical functionaries - the nobles, courtiers, and elders of the city on the one hand, the priests, prophets (among them, Ezekiel), and Levites on the other.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13-16. as the Lord had said—(compare 2Ki 20:17; Isa 39:6; Jer 15:13; 17:3). The elite of the nation for rank, usefulness, and moral worth, all who might be useful in Babylon or dangerous in Palestine, were carried off to Babylon, to the number of ten thousand (2Ki 24:14). These are specified (2Ki 24:15, 16), warriors, seven thousand; craftsmen and smiths, one thousand; king's wives, officers, and princes, also priests and prophets (Jer 29:1; Eze 1:1), two thousand; equal to ten thousand captives in all.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon,.... Where he continued at least thirty seven years, 2 Kings 25:27.

and the king's mother; whose name was Nehushta, 2 Kings 24:8.

and the king's wives; for though he was so young, it seems he had many wives, as was the custom of those times; or his "women", who were either his concubines, or servants in his family:

and his officers; in his court: and the mighty of the land; the princes and nobles thereof; or "the fools of the land", as the word is written; so the people generally were:

those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon; which, according to Bunting (s), were six hundred and eighty miles distant from each other.

(s) Travels, &c. p. 198.

Geneva Study Bible

And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon (comp. 2 Chronicles 36:10; Jeremiah 22:26; Jeremiah 24:1; Jeremiah 52:31; Josephus, 'Ant. Jud.,' 10:7. § 1). Jehoiachin continued a captive in Babylon during the remainder of Nebuchadnezzar's reign - a space of thirty-seven years (see the comment on 2 Kings 25:27). And the king's mother (see above, ver. 12), and the king's wives - this is important, as helping to determine Jehoiachin's ago (see the comment on ver. 8) - and his officers - rather, his eunuchs (comp. Jeremiah 38:7; Jeremiah 39:16) - and the mighty of the land. Not only the "princes" and the trained soldiers and the skilled artisans (ver. 14), but all who were of much account, as the bulk of the priests and the prophets (see Jeremiah 29:1-24). Those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. "Babylon" (בָבֶל) is the city, not the country (as Thenius imagines). It was the practice for the conquering kings to carry their captives with them to their capital, for ostentation's sake, before determining on their destination. The Jewish prisoners were, no doubt, ultimately settled in various parts of Babylonia. Hence they are called (Ezra 2:1; Nehemiah 7:6) "the children of the province." 2 Kings 24:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Beside these treasures, he carried away captive to Babylon the cream of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, not only the most affluent, but, as is evident from Jeremiah 24:1-10, the best portion in a moral respect. In 2 Kings 24:14 the number of those who were carried off is simply given in a general form, according to its sum-total, as 10,000; and then in 2 Kings 24:15, 2 Kings 24:16 the details are more minutely specified. "All Jerusalem" is the whole of the population of Jerusalem, which is first of all divided into two leading classes, and then more precisely defined by the clause, "nothing was left except the common people," and reduced to the cream of the citizens. The king, queen-mother, and king's wives being passed over and mentioned for the first time in the special list in 2 Kings 24:15, there are noticed here כּל־השּׂרים and החיל גּבּורי כּל, who form the first of the leading classes. By the שׂרים are meant, according to 2 Kings 24:15, the סריסים, chamberlains, i.e., the officials of the king's court in general, and by הארץ אוּלי ("the mighty of the land") all the heads of the tribes and families of the nation that were found in Jerusalem; and under the last the priests and prophets, who were also carried away according to Jeremiah 29:1, with Ezekiel among them (Ezekiel 1:1), are included as the spiritual heads of the people. The החיל גּבּורי are called החיל אנשׁי in 2 Kings 24:16; their number was 7000. The persons intended are not warriors, but men of property, as in 2 Kings 15:20. The second class of those who ere carried away consisted of כּל־החרשׁ, all the workers in stone, metal, and wood, that is to say, masons, smiths, and carpenters; and המּסגּר, the locksmiths, including probably not actual locksmiths only, but makers of weapons also. There is no need for any serious refutation of the marvellous explanation given of מסגּר by Hitzig (on Jeremiah 24:1), who derives it from מס and גּר, and supposes it to be an epithet applied to the remnant of the Canaanites, who had been made into tributary labourers, although it has been adopted by Thenius and Graf, who make them into artisans of the foreign socagers. עם־הארץ דּלּת equals דלּת־הארץ (2 Kings 25:12), the poor people of the land, i.e., the lower portion of the population of Jerusalem, from whom Nebuchadnezzar did not fear any rebellion, because they possessed nothing (Jeremiah 39:10), i.e., neither property (money nor other possessions), nor strength and ability to organize a revolt. The antithesis to these formed by the מלחמה עשׂי מ גּבּורים, the strong or powerful men, who were in a condition to originate and carry on a war; for this category includes all who were carried away, not merely the thousand workmen, but also the seven thousand החיל אנשׁי, and the king's officers and the chiefs of the nation, whose number amounted to two thousand, since the total number of the exiles was then thousand. There is no special allusion to warriors or military, because in the struggle for the rescue of the capital and the kingdom from destruction every man who could bear arms performed military service, so that the distinction between warriors and non-warriors was swept away, and the actual warriors are swallowed up in the ten thousand. Babel is the country of Babylonia, or rather the Babylonian empire.