Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 25
When Babylon’s soldiers had completely destroyed Jerusalem, many of them could, at last, return to Babylon. They had been away from their homes for at least two years.
They did not return alone. Their final task was to gather the people from Jerusalem. They would then force these people to march with them to Babylon. Babylon’s rulers had decided that these people must now live and work in Babylon. They would there join those people whom Babylon’s king brought back to Babylon 11 years earlier (24:14-16).
The soldiers left in Judah only the poorest people. These were probably those people whom the soldiers considered to be too weak to march to Babylon. So, the soldiers left them in Judah. They would have to carry out agricultural work there.
The march to Babylon was very terrible. The people had to walk for about 1000 miles (1600 kilometres). Before they began, they were already in a weak state. They had suffered from hunger and illness while Babylon’s army was attacking Jerusalem.
The march, of course, took several months to complete. In Ezekiel 33:21, a man came to Babylon to bring urgent news to the people from Judah. Ezekiel records the date when he arrived. It had taken 6 months for the man to reach Babylon.
We are sure that, on that terrible march, many people died. Perhaps some of them managed to escape on the way. Jeremiah 52:28-30 records the numbers of people who had to go to Babylon on three separate occasions. The numbers there are lower than we might expect. So perhaps that passage counts the numbers of Judah’s men who actually reached Babylon.
Next part: The temple's gold, silver and bronze (2 Kings 25:13-17)
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