Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.
Tel-abib. Tel means an 'elevation.' It is identified by Michaelis with Thallaba on the Chabour. Perhaps the name expressed the Jews' hopes of restoration, or else the fertility of the region. Abib means the green ears of grain which appeared in the month Nisan, the pledge of the harvest.
I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days. This is the Hebrew margin reading х waa'eesheeb (H3427)]. The text is rather х wa'eesheer (H7788) from shuwr (H7788), to look] 'I beheld them sitting there', (Gesenius); or 'And those that were settled there,' namely, the older settlers, as distinguished from the more recent ones alluded to in the previous clause. The ten tribes had been long since carried away by Shalmaneser king of Asyria, and settled on the Chabor or Habor (2 Kings 18:6).