Esther 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, Jeremiah 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, Jeremiah 24:2 , such as God's soul desireth, Micah 7:1 , and yet they were carried away with Jeconiah and the rest that were nought, stark nought, Jeremiah 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, Jeremiah 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, Ezekiel 6:5, without mixture of mercy; and that because they are nought, very nought, figs that cannot be eaten, they are so nought, Jeremiah 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, 1 Corinthians 11:32. This rod, when he had worn to the stumps, he cast into the fire.