Jeremiah 52:15

Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) Certain of the poor of the people.—Omitted in 2Kings 25:11, and probably inserted here by an error of transcription, as the next verse states that the “poor of the land” were left in their own country.

The rest of the multitude.—Better, perhaps, the remnant of the work-people, as in Proverbs 8:30, where many commentators so render the word, “I was with him as a worker” and Song Song of Solomon 7:1. The versions, however, agree in giving “multitude.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

52:12-23 The Chaldean army made woful havoc. But nothing is so particularly related here, as the carrying away of the articles in the temple. The remembrance of their beauty and value shows us the more the evil of sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Certain of the poor of the people, and - Omit (as in 2 Kings 25:11), being inserted through some confusion with Jeremiah 52:16.

Multitude - Possibly workmen. The object of Nebuchadnezzar was to people Babylon, not with paupers, but with men of a better class, artisans and workmen, who would enrich it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. poor of … people—added to the account in 2Ki 25:11. "The poor of the people" are of the city, as distinguished from "the poor of the land," that is, of the country.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people,.... That is, of the city, as distinct from the poor of the land of Judea he left, afterwards observed:

and the residue of the people that remained in the city; that died not by the sword or famine, and fled not with Zedekiah: or "even the residue of the people"; and so are the same with the poor people in the former clause; though Kimchi explains it thus,

"some of the poor of the people he carried captive, and some of them he left:''

and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon; that fell off from the Jews, and surrendered to the king of Babylon during the siege; or that voluntarily came in, and put themselves into the hands of the captain of the guard:

and the rest of the multitude; of the people, both in city and country.

Geneva Study Bible

Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. The whole v. is omitted by the LXX. The words “of the poorest sort of the people and” seem to have come in from the next v. through an error of sight on the part of a copyist. The three classes of persons actually spoken of in the v. appear to be (a) those found within the city at the time of its capture, (b) those who had gone out to the Chaldaeans during the siege (see note on Jeremiah 39:9), (c) the “residue of the multitude.” But for “multitude” read, as mg. artificers. Cp. Proverbs 8:30 (R. V. “a master workman”). The original differs by but one consonant from “multitude” which is the reading in Kings.

Jeremiah 52:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The first words, "And of the poor of the people," are wanting in Kings, and have been brought here, through an error on the part of the copyist, from the beginning of the next verse; for "the poor of the people" are first treated of in Jeremiah 52:16, where it is stated that Nebuzaradan left them in the land, while Jeremiah 52:15 treats of those who were carried away to Babylon. The word האמון, instead of ההמון (Kings), seems to have originated simply through the exchange of א for ה, and to mean, like the other, the multitude of people. Hitzig and Graf are of opinion that אמון here, as in Proverbs 8:30, means workmaster or artificer, and that האמון denotes the same persons (collectively) who are designated החרשׁ והמּסגּר in Proverbs 24:1; Proverbs 29:2, and 2 Kings 24:14. But this view is opposed by the parallel passage, Jeremiah 39:9, where the whole of this verse occurs, and יתר העם הנּשׁארים stands instead of יתר האמון. "The rest of the people of Jerusalem" are divided, by ואת־ואת, into those who went over to the Chaldeans, and the rest of the people who were taken prisoners by the Chaldeans at the capture of the city. The statement that both of these two classes of the population of Jerusalem were carried away to Babylon is so far limited by the further declaration, in Jeremiah 52:16, that Nebuzaradan did not carry away every one, without exception, but let a portion of the humbler inhabitants of the country, who had no property, remain in the land, as vinedressers and husbandmen, that they might till the land. Instead of מדּלּות הארץ there occurs in Kings מדּלּת, and in Jeremiah 39:10, more distinctly, מן העם הדּלּים, "some of the people, the humbler ones," who had no property of their own. דּלּה, pl. דּלּות, is an abstract noun, "poverty;" the singular is used collectively, hence the plural is here used to supply the deficiency. For יגבים, from יגב, to plough, there is found instead, in 2 Kings 25:12, Kethib גּבים, from גּוּב, with the same meaning.