Esther 2:6

Est 2:6 Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.

Ver. 6. Who had been carried away from Jerusalem] Kish had, not Mordecai; unless it were in the loins of his great grandfather. Kish and his posterity were of those good figs mentioned in Jeremiah; but goodness is no target against affliction.

- nec te tua plurima Pentheu

Labentem texit pietas (Virg.).

With the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah] The good figs were carried away at the same time with the bad, but in several baskets, Jer 34:1. Kish, and others like him, as Daniel, Ezekiel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, &c., were not only good men, but very good, like the figs that are first ripe, Jer 24:2, such as God’s soul desireth, Mic 7:1, and yet they were carried away with Jeconiah and the rest that were nought, stark nought, Jer 24:2. The best may have their share in a common calamity; but God will not fail even then to set his eyes upon them for good, Jer 24:6. The husbandman cutteth down his corn and weeds together, but for different purpose. Excellently Austin, Una eademque vis irruens bonos probat, purificat, eliquat; malos damnat, vastat, exterminat: One and the same common calamity proveth, melteth, purifieth the good; damneth, wasteth, destroyeth the evil (De Civit. Dei, lib. 1, cap. 8): these have an evil, an only evil, Eze 6:5, without mixture of mercy; and that because they are nought, very nought, figs that cannot be eaten, they are so nought, Jer 24:2.

Whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away] Lo, here the rod in God’s hand for the chastisement of his children; that, being chastened of the Lord, they may not be condemned with the world, 1Co 11:32. This rod, when he had worn to the stumps, he cast into the fire.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Est 2:6. Who had been carried away from Jerusalem — This may refer either to Kish, Mordecai’s grandfather, last mentioned, or to Mordecai himself, which, however, is not probable, as in that case he must have been a very old man, not less than a hundred and forty years of age.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:6 His family (literally He): Since King Jehoiachin was exiled in 597 BC (2 Kgs 24:6-16), over 100 years earlier, it was probably one of Mordecai’s ancestors who was part of the group taken into Babylonian captivity.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(6) Who had been . . .—The antecedent is obviously Kish, though as far as the mere grammar goes it might have been Mordecai.

Jeconiah.—That is, Jehoiachin. (See 2Ki_24:12-16.)

Nebuchadnezzar . . . had carried away.—This was in 598 B.C., 117 years before this time, so that the four generations are readily accounted for.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. who had been carried away] According to Heb. grammar, the relative pronoun should refer to Mordecai. If, however, he was even as a boy one of the captives in the time of Jeconiah (Jehoiachin, 2Ki_24:6), b.c. 598, and if, as we have seen, Ahasuerus is to be identified with Xerxes, Mordecai’s age would be something like 120 years, while his cousin Esther must also have been much too old. To get rid of this difficulty (which would only be diminished, not removed, if we were to adopt the otherwise very improbable view that an earlier ruler than Xerxes is intended), it has been sought, in contravention of the grammatical usage of the original, to make the antecedent to be not Mordecai but Kish, taken as the name of the great-grandfather of the former, and as otherwise unknown. But the true explanation doubtless is that the chronological difficulty never occurred to the framer of the story, nor, probably, to his earliest readers, and that he simply meant to represent Mordecai as one of the Jews in exile.

whom Nebuchadnezzar etc.] See 2Ki_24:10 ff.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Who had been carried away from Jerusalem,.... Which, according to some (f), is to be connected, not with Mordecai, but with Kish, his great-grandfather; and indeed otherwise Mordecai must be now a very old man, and Esther his first cousin, they being brothers' children, must be at an age, one would think, not to be reckoned among young virgins, and not be so amiable as she is represented; and indeed, according to the former Targum, she was seventy five years of age, which is not credible; and yet this, and more she must be, to be equal to Mordecai, if he was carried captive, as follows:

with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away; which was eleven years before the destruction of Jerusalem, for so long Zedekiah reigned after that captivity of Jeconiah: hence Sir John Marsham (g) makes this affair of Esther to be within the time of the Babylonish captivity, and places Ahasuerus her husband between Darius the Mede and Cyrus, contrary to history and Scripture, see Dan 6:28.

(f) Vid. Rainold. de Lib. Apocryph. Praelect. 113, 117, 146. (g) Chronicon. see. 18. p. 609, 621.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Who. This may refer to Cis, the great-grandfather of Mardochai, if we postpone this history till the latter end of the Persian monarchy. (Du Hamel) --- But it more naturally applies to Mardochai himself, who (chap. xi. 4.; Tirinus) was led captive 80 years before, being then perhaps 10 years old, so that he would now be only 90; an age when many are fit for great things. (Calmet) (Cicero, de Senect.) --- He might even have been an infant when taken, and of course would not be much above 80 when he came into such favour. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Who had been carried away: this may be referred either,

1. To Kish, Mordecai’s grandfather last mentioned; or,

2. To Mordecai, who was then carried away, either,

1. In the loins of his parents, in which sense Levi is said to be tithed in Abraham, Heb 7; and as those persons named Ezr 2 are said to have been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, Ezr 2:1, which is not true of the most of them in their own persons, but only as in their fathers’ loins. Or,

2. In his own person; and then indeed he was a man of more than ordinary years. But of that See Poole "Est 1:1".

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Who had been carried away — The relative who, here, must refer to Kish, not to Mordecai; for it is scarcely possible that a captive of Nebuchadnezzar should have been an officer of the Persian court in the time of Xerxes. Daniel was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, and continued till the reign of Cyrus, (Dan_1:1; Dan_1:21,) and the fact is mentioned as worthy of special remark. Had Mordecai been his contemporary, and yet have lived on to the time of Xerxes, the fact would no doubt have received special notice. But the attempt of Tyrwhitt (Esther and Ahasuerus) to show that a great-grandson of a captive taken by Nebuchadnezzar could not have been contemporary with Xerxes, is every way futile. Kish may have been a mere child when taken captive, and Shimei and Jair may not have been the first born. Arguments based on parallel lines of descent are often misleading, for, of the great-grandchildren of two contemporaries, some may be mere infants when others are of mature age.

Jeconiah — Another form of the name Jehoiachin. Comp. 2Ki_24:12, with Jer_24:1.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Who had been carried away. The word "who" may have either Kish or Mordecai for its antecedent. It is simplest, however, and most grammatical (see "Dictionary of the Bible," vol. 2. p. 419), to refer it to Kish. Chronological considerations also lead to the same result; and indeed, if we suppose Mordecai to be intended, we must give up the identification of Ahasuerus with Xerxes. The captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah. There were at least three captivities of Judah the first when Daniel was carried away, in the third year of Jehoiakim, (Dan_1:1) which was B.C. 605; the second that here referred to, when Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, was made prisoner, eight years later, or B.C. 597; and the third when Zedekiah was taken and Jerusalem burnt, in B.C. 586. Kish belonged to the second captivity. Whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away. See 2Ki_24:15; 2Ch_36:10; Jer_24:1.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jeconiah

Or, Jehoiachin; 2Ki 24:6.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.