Bible Strands
2 Kings 25:12
But the captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Nebuzaradan, captain of the Babylonian guard, acting at the moment of Jerusalem’s final destruction after deporting the city’s remaining population. This administrative decision occurs immediately before the Chaldeans dismantle the temple’s bronze fixtures.
The words — הִשְׁאִיר (hish.'Ir) translates literally as "he left behind," and מִדַּלְת (midat) denotes "the poor people." These terms specify that the Babylonian commander intentionally retained a destitute agricultural workforce in the conquered territory.
The thread — This retention of the poor parallels the earlier exile of Jerusalem’s craftsmen in 2 Kings 24:14 and the subsequent Babylonian policy of appointing Gedaliah over the remaining land in Jeremiah 39:10 and Jeremiah 40:7.
Why it lands — The text states that conquerors preserved agricultural laborers to sustain the land after mass deportation. It asks the reader to observe how political and economic survival strategies function within the narrative of national judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 24:14 He carried into exile all Jerusalem—all the commanders and mighty men of valor, all the craftsmen and metalsmiths—ten thousand captives in all. Only the poorest people of the land remained.
- Jeremiah 40:7 When all the commanders and men of the armies in the field heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam over the land and that he had put him in charge of the men, women, and children who were the poorest of the land and had not been exiled to Babylon,
- Jeremiah 39:10 But Nebuzaradan left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people who had no property, and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.
- Jeremiah 52:16 But Nebuzaradan captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.
- Ezekiel 33:24 “Son of man, those living in the ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as a possession.’