2 Kings 24:16

16 And all the men of war, seven thousand of them, and a thousand expert workmen and metal-workers, all of them strong and able to take up arms, the king of Babylon took away as prisoners into Babylon.

2 Kings 24:16 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 24:16

And all the men of might, even seven thousand
The particulars of the 10,000 carried captive are here given; 7000 of which were the principal men of the land:

and craftsmen and smiths one thousand;
which made 8000:

all that were strong, and apt for war;
of these consisted the other 2000; so Abarbinel reckons them; but, according to the Jewish chronologer ^F20, which Jarchi and other Jewish commentators follow, the 7000 were out of the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of the tribes, and the 3000 out of the tribe of Judah, which are supposed to be those Jeremiah speaks of, ( Jeremiah 52:28 ) ,

even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon;
among these were Ezekiel the prophet, and Mordecai, the uncle of Esther.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 Seder Olam Rabba, c. 25.

2 Kings 24:16 In-Context

14 And he took away all the people of Jerusalem and all the chiefs and all the men of war, ten thousand prisoners; and all the expert workmen and the metal-workers; only the poorest sort of the people of the land were not taken away.

15 He took Jehoiachin a prisoner to Babylon, with his mother and his wives and his unsexed servants and the great men of the land; he took them all as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon.

16 And all the men of war, seven thousand of them, and a thousand expert workmen and metal-workers, all of them strong and able to take up arms, the king of Babylon took away as prisoners into Babylon.

17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, his father's brother, king in place of Jehoiachin, changing his name to Zedekiah.

18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years; his mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.