And all the men of might. — “The mighty men of valour” of 2 Kings 24:14. (The words depend on the verb, “he carried away,” in 2 Kings 24:14.) As there were 7,000 of these, and 1,000 “craftsmen and smiths,” and the total number of the exiles was 10,000, there were 2,000 belonging to the aristocratic classes. Jeremiah 52:28 gives a total of 3,023. Thenius explains his discrepancy as resulting from a transcriber’s confusion of a large y, i.e. 10, with g, i.e. 3. Josephus has made his total of 10,832 out of the 832 of the second deportation (Jeremiah 52:29) added to the 10,000 here assigned.
All that were strong and apt for war. — Literally, the whole, warriors and doers of battle. This clause refers to both those which precede, and it states that the 8,000 were all men in their prime, and trained in the use of weapons (Thenius). But may not the term “strong” (gibbôrûm, “heroes,” “warriors”) refer to the 7,000 as actual fighting men; and the phrase “makers of war” denote the craftsmen as employed in forging weapons and constructing defences? (The Syriac reads, and all the men that made war.)
Even them the king of Babylon brought. — Literally, and the King of Babylon brought them.