¹⁴ He carried all Jerusalem into exile:^(A) all the officers and fighting men,^(B) and all the skilled workers and artisans—a total of ten thousand. Only the poorest^(C) people of the land were left.

²⁸ This is the number of the people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile:^(A)

¹² But the commander left behind some of the poorest people^(A) of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

¹⁶ The king of Babylon also deported to Babylon the entire force of seven thousand fighting men, strong and fit for war, and a thousand skilled workers and artisans.^(A)

Ezekiel’s Inaugural Vision

1 In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles^(A) by the Kebar River,^(B) the heavens were opened^(C) and I saw visions^(D) of God.

² On the fifth of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin^(E)—

¹⁶ But Nebuzaradan left behind^(A) the rest of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

Gedaliah Assassinated^(A)

⁷ When all the army officers and their men who were still in the open country heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam as governor^(B) over the land and had put him in charge of the men, women and children who were the poorest^(C) in the land and who had not been carried into exile to Babylon,

¹⁰ But Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.

Jehoiachin King of Judah^(A)

⁹ Jehoiachin^(B) was eighteen^[a] years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. ¹⁰ In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and brought him to Babylon,^(C) together with articles of value from the temple of the Lord, and he made Jehoiachin’s uncle,^[b] Zedekiah, king over Judah and Jerusalem.