2 Kings 25:11

Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) The fugitives that fell away—i.e., the deserters. (See Jeremiah 27:12; Jeremiah 37:13 sea., Jeremiah 38:2; Jeremiah 38:4; Jeremiah 38:17; Jeremiah 38:19.)

The multitude.—Probably the rank and file of the fighting-men (Judges 4:7). The word is hāmôn, strictly a shouting throng. (The Syriac has “the rest of the army.”) Jeremiah 52:15, spells the word with the light breathing (‘āniôn—either a dialectic use, or a mistake, not a distinct word).

Benson Commentary

2 Kings 25:11-12. Now the rest of the people that were left in the city — Whom neither the sword nor famine had destroyed, who were eight hundred and thirty-two persons, (Jeremiah 52:29,) being members and traders of that city: for it is likely that there were very many more of the country people fled thither, who were left with others of their brethren to manure the land. And the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon — That is, all that fled to him, and put themselves under his protection; with the remnant of the multitudes — Of the inhabitants of the country. For the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land — So while the rich were prisoners in a strange land, the poor had liberty and peace in their own country! Thus Providence sometimes humbles the proud, and favours them of low degree.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:8-21 The city and temple were burnt, and, it is probable, the ark in it. By this, God showed how little he cares for the outward pomp of his worship, when the life and power of religion are neglected. The walls of Jerusalem were thrown down, and the people carried captive to Babylon. The vessels of the temple were carried away. When the things signified were sinned away, what should the signs stand there for? It was righteous with God to deprive those of the benefit of his worship, who had preferred false worships before it; those that would have many altars, now shall have none. As the Lord spared not the angels that sinned, as he doomed the whole race of fallen men to the grave, and all unbelievers to hell, and as he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, we need not wonder at any miseries he may bring upon guilty nations, churches, or persons.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The fugitives ... - It was from a fear of the treatment which he would receive at the hands of these deserters that Zedekiah persisted in defending the city to the last Jeremiah 38:19.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8-18. on the seventh day of the month … came Nebuzar-adan—(compare Jer 52:12). In attempting to reconcile these two passages, it must be supposed either that, though he had set out on the seventh, he did not arrive in Jerusalem till the tenth, or that he did not put his orders in execution till that day. His office as captain of the guard (Ge 37:36; 39:1) called him to execute the awards of justice on criminals; and hence, although not engaged in the siege of Jerusalem (Jer 39:13), Nebuzar-adan was despatched to rase the city, to plunder the temple, to lay both in ruins, demolish the fortifications, and transport the inhabitants to Babylon. The most eminent of these were taken to the king at Riblah (2Ki 25:27) and executed, as instigators and abettors of the rebellion, or otherwise obnoxious to the Assyrian government. In their number were Seraiah, the high priest, grandfather of Ezra (Ezr 7:1), his sagan or deputy, a priest of the second order (Jer 21:2; 29:25, 29; 37:3).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The people that were left in the city, whom neither the sword nor famine had destroyed, who were eight hundred and thirty-two persons, Jeremiah 52:29, being members and traders of that city; for it is likely that there were very many more of the country people who were fled thither, who were left with others of their brethren to manure the land, as it here follows.

The remnant of the multitude, to wit, of the inhabitants of the country.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month,.... In Jeremiah 52:12 it is the tenth day of the month; which, how to be reconciled; see Gill on Jeremiah 52:12.

which is the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar; who, according to Ptolemy's canon, reigned forty three years; Metasthenes (u) says forty five; and from hence, to the end of 2 Kings 25:12 facts are related as in Jeremiah 52:12 whither the reader is referred.

(u) De Judicio Temp. & Annal. Pers. fol. 221. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that {g} fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away.

(g) While the siege endured.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. Now the rest [R.V. And the residue] of the people] The change is in accordance with Jeremiah 52:15 where the same people are spoken of.

and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon] R.V. and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon. This alteration is also from A.V. in the parallel passage just referred to, where the Hebrew is the same as here.

with the remnant [R.V. residue] of the multitude] Also R.V. adds captive after ‘carry away’ at the close of the verse. Thus the two parallel and nearly identical passages are brought as closely into agreement in the English as they are in the original.

Nebuzar-adan took the residue of the better sort, both those who still were faithful to their country and those who had gone over to the Babylonian side, and the residue of the common folks, who were likely to prove useful in some settlement or other, and carried both these classes with him.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 11-21. - Fate of the inhabitants of Judah, and of the contents of the temple. Having burnt the temple, the royal palace, and the grand residences of the principal citizens, Nebuzar-adan proceeded to divide the inhabitants of the city and country into two bodies - those whom he would leave in the land, and those whom he would carry off. The line of demarcation was, in a general way, a social one. The rich and well-to-do he would take with him; the poor and insignificant he would leave behind (vers. 11, 12). Among the former were included the high priest, the "second priest," three of the temple Levites, the commandant of the city, a certain number of the royal councilors, the "principal scribe of the host," and sixty of the "princes" (vers. 18, 19). The latter were chiefly persons of the agricultural class, who were left to be "vinedressers and husbandmen." From the temple, which had been already plundered twice (2 Chronicles 36:7, 10), he carried off such vessels in gold and silver and bronze as were still remaining there, together with the bronze of the two pillars Jachin and Boaz, of the great laver, or "molten sea," and of the stands for the smaller layers, all of which he broke up (ver. 13). Having reached Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar still was, he delivered up to him both the booty and the prisoners. Rather more than seventy of the latter Nebuchadnezzar punished with death (ver. 21). The rest were taken to Babylon. Verse 11. - Now the rest of the people that were left in the city - i.e., that remained behind when the king and the garrison fled - and the fugitives that fen away to the King of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude; rather, both the fugitives that had fallen away to the King of Babylon, and the remnant of the multitude, The writer means to divide "the rest of the people" into two classes:

(1) those who during the siege, or before it, had deserted to the Babylonians, as no doubt many did, and as Jeremiah was accused of doing (Jeremiah 37:13);

(2) those who were found inside the city when it was taken. Did Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carry away. 2 Kings 25:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The rest of the people he led away, both those who had been left behind in the city and the deserters who had gone over to the Chaldaeans, and the remnant of the multitude. ההמון יתר, for which we have האמון יתר in Jeremiah 52:15, has been interpreted in various ways. As אמון signifies an artist or artificer in Proverbs 8:30, and העם יתר has just preceded it, we might be disposed to give the preference to the reading האמון, as Hitzig and Graf have done, and understand by it the remnant of the artisans, who were called והמּסגּר החרשׁ in 2 Kings 24:14, 2 Kings 24:16. But this view is precluded by Jeremiah 39:9, where we find הנּשׁארים העם יתר instead of האמון יתר or ההמון .י These words cannot be set aside by the arbitrary assumption that they crept into the text through a copyist's error; for the assertion that they contain a purposeless repetition is a piece of dogmatical criticism, inasmuch as there is a distinction drawn in Jeremiah 39:9 between בּעיר הנּשׁארים העם יתר העם הןּ and הנּשׁארים העם יתר. Consequently האמון is simply another form for ההמון (ה and א being interchanged) in the sense of a mass of people, and we have simply the choice left between two interpretations. Either בּעיר הנּשׁארים העם יתר means the fighting people left in the city, as distinguished from the deserters who had fled to the Chaldaeans, and האמון equals ההמון יתר in Jeremiah 52:15, or הנּשׁארים העם יתר in Jeremiah 39:9, the rest of the inhabitants of Jerusalem; or בּעיר הנּשׁ העם יתר is the people left in Jerusalem (warriors and non-warriors), and ההמון יתר the rest of the population of the land outside Jerusalem. The latter is probably the preferable view, not only because full justice is thereby done to בּעיר in the first clause, but also because it is evident from the exception mentioned in 2 Kings 25:12 that the deportation was not confined to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but extended to the population of the whole land. The "poor people," whom he allowed to remain in the land as vine-dressers and husbandmen, were the common people, or people without property, not merely in Jerusalem, but throughout the whole land. הארץ דּלּת equals עם־הארץ דּלּת (2 Kings 24:14). Instead of מדּלּת we have in Jeremiah מדּלּות: the plural used in an abstract sense, "the poverty," i.e., the lower people, "the poor who had nothing" (Jeremiah 39:10). Instead of the Chethb לגבים from גּוּב, secuit, aravit, the Keri has ליגבים from יגב, in the same sense, after Jeremiah 52:16.