2 Kings 24King James Version
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon comes. Jehoiakim is a vassal, then rebels, then dies. His son Jehoiachin reigns three months before surrendering. The Babylonians carry him into exile along with the leaders, the craftsmen, and the smiths. Ten thousand are taken. Zedekiah is set up as a puppet king.
Jehoiakim becomes a vassal of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, then rebels. Raiding bands of Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites attack Judah. Jehoiakim dies and his son Jehoiachin reigns three months. Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem, and Jehoiachin surrenders with his whole court. Nebuchadnezzar takes the temple treasuries, deports ten thousand people including all craftsmen and soldiers, and installs Zedekiah as king. Only the poorest people remain in the land.
The first deportation to Babylon strips Jerusalem of its leadership, its skilled workers, and its treasury: what remains is the shell of a nation, held together by a king installed by an empire.
14: "And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land." The deportation is surgical: remove the people who could organize resistance.
Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem and the deportation of 597 BC are confirmed in the Babylonian Chronicle, a cuneiform tablet that records the capture of the city and the appointment of a new king. Jehoiachin (called Jeconiah or Coniah in Jeremiah) is mentioned in Babylonian ration tablets found at Ishtar Gate as receiving oil and grain while in Babylonian custody, confirming his survival in exile.
Jehoiakim, who dies during the siege; Jehoiachin, who surrenders and is exiled to Babylon; Nebuchadnezzar, methodical and decisive; Zedekiah, the installed puppet; the ten thousand deportees, which include Daniel and his companions.
This first deportation in 597 BC is the exile that Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel all experience. Ezekiel prophesies from Babylon throughout his ministry. Daniel is among those taken. The emptying of craftsmen is strategic: a city without skilled workers cannot rebuild its fortifications. The temple treasures being cut up and taken fulfills Solomon's nightmare from 1 Kings 9.
For when something is being stripped away piece by piece and each loss seems survivable, but the accumulation is devastating. Ten thousand people. All the craftsmen. None remained save the poorest.
1In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him.
2And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets.
3Surely at the commandment of the LORD came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did;
4And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon.
5Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
6So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
7And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land: for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt.
8Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
9And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done.
10At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
11And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants did besiege it.
12And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.
13And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.
14And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.
15And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.
16And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.
17And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father's brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
18Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
19And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
20For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.