Jeremiah 39:10

He here opposes women to men, because that sex bends even the most cruel to pity, and we know that when men are slain, women are preserved. Now girls seem to hold a better position and boys also: and decrepit old men, because nothing is to be feared from them, are preserved safe. But God wishes the Chaldeans so to attack the whole city, that they respect neither age nor sex. Meanwhile he excepts the faithful of whom he had spoken, upon whomsoever the mark shall be, do not approach him. Here it is asked, were all the good preserved free from slaughter? for we know that Jeremiah was drawn into Egypt, to whom Chaldaea would have been a preferable place of banishment. Already Daniel and his companions had been snatched away before him, many were faithful in that multitude. On the other hand, we see many despisers of God either escaped or left in the land, as Nebuchadnezzar wished the dregs of the people to remain there. But we saw of what sort they were in Jeremiah. It follows therefore that God neither spared all the elect, nor made a difference in consequence of the mark, because the wicked obtained safety as well as the faithful. (Jeremiah 39:10; Jeremiah 43:2, 3, 4; Jeremiah 44:15, 16.) But we must observe, although God apparently afflicts his people with the ungodly, yet they are so separated, that nothing happens which does not tend to the safety of the righteous.

39:1-10 Jerusalem was so strong, that the inhabitants believed the enemy could never enter it. But sin provoked God to withdraw his protection, and then it was as weak as other cities. Zedekiah had his eyes put out; so he was condemned to darkness who had shut his eyes against the clear light of God's word. Those who will not believe God's words, will be convinced by the event. Observe the wonderful changes of Providence, how uncertain are earthly possessions; and see the just dealings of Providence: but whether the Lord makes men poor or rich, nothing will profit them while they cleave to their sins.

But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah,.... Because they would have been of no service to the Chaldeans, but a burden to them; and because they had nothing to fear from them; they had no arms to rebel against them, nor money to purchase any; and because it would be to their interest to have the land manured, and not lie waste, that they might have some tribute from it: and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time; as their own property to dress and cultivate, and receive the advantage of them; though very probably a tax was laid upon them; or they were to pay tribute to the king of Babylon; or, however, contribute out of them to the support of the government that was placed over them; and this was a happy incident in their favour; here was a strange change of circumstances with them; though the nation in general was in distress, they, who before had nothing, are now proprietors of vineyards and fields, when the former owners were carried captive: there might be much of the justice of God conspicuous in this affair; such who had been oppressed and ill used by the rich are now retaliated with their possessions. The Targum is, "and he appointed them to work in the fields and in the vineyards in that day.''

But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the {d} poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. (d) For the rich and the mighty who put their trust in their shifts and means, were by God's just judgments most rigorously handled.

This is usual with conquerors, for whose profit it is not that the countries conquered by them should lie waste, like wildernesses, but be peopled, and manured, that they may render some tribute to them: withal the justice of God is often seen in this, thus restoring to them ofttimes with advantage, by the hands of enemies that prove conquerors, those estates which in corrupt times their proper magistrates by violence and oppression took from them, or at least more than compensating their losses by acts of violence and injustice.

"And the rest of the people that had remained in the city, and the deserters who had deserted to him, and the rest of the people that remained, Nebuzaradan, the chief of the body-guards, led captive to Babylon. Jeremiah 39:10 . But of the poorest of the people, who had nothing, Nebuzaradan left some in the country, and he gave them vineyards and arable fields at the same time." עליו after נפלוּ refers, ad sensum, to the king of Babylon; his name, certainly, is not given in the immediate context, but it is readily suggested by it. In Jeremiah 52:15 we find אל־מלך בּבל instead of עליו; yet we might also refer this last-named word to the following subject, Nebuzaradan, as the representative of the king. רב־טבּחים, properly, chief of the slayers, i.e., of the executioners, is the chief of the king's body-guard, who occupied the first place among the royal attendants; see on Genesis 37:36 . By the addition of the words בּיום ההוּא, on that day, i.e., then, the more general account regarding Jerusalem and its inhabitants is concluded, for the purpose of attaching to it the notice regarding the fate of the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 39:11-14 .

[Bible] 39:4. And when Sedecias the king of Juda and all the men of war saw them, they fled: and they went forth in the night out of the city by the way of the king's garden, and by the gate that was between the two walls, and they went out to the way of the desert. 39:5. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them: and they took Sedecias in the plain of the desert of Jericho, and when they had taken him, they brought him to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon to Reblatha, which is in the land of Emath: and he gave judgment upon him. 39:6. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias, in Reblatha, before his eyes: and the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Juda. 39:7. He also put out the eyes of Sedecias: and bound him with fetters, to be carried to Babylon. 39:8. And the Chaldeans burnt the king's house, and the houses of the people with fire, and they threw down the wall of Jerusalem. 39:9. And Nabuzardan the general of the army carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and the fugitives that had gone over to him, and the rest of the people that remained. 39:10. But Nabuzardan the general left some of the poor people that had nothing at all, in the land of Juda, and he gave them vineyards, and cisterns at that time. 39:11. Now Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had given charge to Nabuzardan the general concerning Jeremias, saying: 39:12. Take him, and set thy eyes upon him, and do him no harm: but as he hath a mind, so do with him. 39:13. Therefore Nabuzardan the general sent, and Nabuzardan, and Rabsares, and Neregel, and Sereser, and Rebmag, and all the nobles of the king of Babylon, 39:14. Sent and took Jeremias out of the court of the prison, and committed him to Godolias the son of Ahicam the son of Saphan, that he might go home, and dwell among the people. 39:15. But the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, when he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying: Go, and tell Abdemelech the Ethiopian, saying:

12 . left of the poor [R.V. poorest ] of the land ] The word was so rendered above in 2 Kings 24:14 . Now that the great houses and their inhabitants were gone and the craftsmen also, the life became no better than that of the nomads, and the people left behind could only turn to keeping the land in cultivation. Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 39:10 ) calls them ‘the poor of the people, which had nothing’.

Before his eyes - This refinement of cruelty seems to have especially shocked the Jews, whose manners were less barbarous than those of most Orientals. It is noted by Jeremiah in two places Jeremiah 39:6 ; Jeremiah 52:10 . And put out the eyes of Zedekiah - Blinding has always been among the most common of secondary punishments in the East (compare Judges 16:2 l). The blinding of Zedekiah reconciled in a very remarkable way prophecies, apparently contradictory, which had been made concerning him. Jeremiah had prophesied distinctly that he would be carried to Babylon Jeremiah 32:5; Jeremiah 34:3. Ezekiel had said that he should not "see Babylon" Ezekiel 12:13. His deprivation of sight before he was carried to the conqueror's capital fulfilled the predictions of both prophets. With fetters of brass - literally, (see Jeremiah 39:7 margin), "with two chains of brass." The Assyrians' captives are usually represented as bound hand and foot - the two hands secured by one chain, the two feet by another. According to Jewish tradition Zedekiah was, like other slaves, forced to work in a mill at Babylon. Jeremiah tells us that he was kept in prison until he died Jeremiah 52:11.