Jeremiah 52:16

But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for husbandmen.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

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

Husbandmen - Men who tilled little plots of ground with the mattock.

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

See Poole "2 Kings 25:8", See Poole "2 Kings 25:9", See Poole "2 Kings 25:10", See Poole "2 Kings 25:11", See Poole "2 Kings 25:12" where all this is related, only with a small difference as to the day of the month when Nebuzar-adan came to Jerusalem and burned the temple. In the Kings it is said he came the seventh day, here it is said he came the tenth day. See the solution of it in the annotations on 2 Kings 25. Probably he might come into Jerusalem the seventh day, and not burn the temple till the tenth. Much of it also is related by Jeremiah 39. The provost-marshal, about a month after the taking of the city, returned with a part of the army, burned the temple, the great men’s houses in the city, and many other houses, and carried away divers prisoners, but left some of the poorer sort of the people to dress the vineyards and till the grounds, which is a thing very usual with conquerors, for their own advantage, that their conquests may yield them some revenue.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land,.... Of the land of Judea, who lived in the country, and had not been concerned in defending the city against the Chaldeans:

for vinedressers, and for husbandmen; to look after the vineyards and fields, and dress and manure them, that the king of Babylon might receive some advantage by the conquest he had made; See Gill on Jeremiah 39:10.

Geneva Study Bible

But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for husbandmen.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Jeremiah 52:16

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.