Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 24:14

"And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths; none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land." — 2 Kings 24:14 (ASV)

All Jerusalem. This phrase is limited by what follows, referring to the most important part of the population.

The princes. This term means the nobles, for example, the grandees of the court, some of the priests (Ezekiel 1:1), and the heads of the clans.

The mighty men of valour. This interpretation is likely correct. Thenius and Bähr prefer to understand this as referring to the men of property and the artisans, as in 2 Kings 15:20.

All the craftsmen and smiths. The former were workers in wood, stone, and metal—that is, carpenters, masons, and smiths . The “smiths” (literally, “they who shut”) correspond to what we would call locksmiths. They were makers of bolts and bars for doors and gates (Jeremiah 24:1; Jeremiah 29:2). It is obvious that by deporting “the craftsmen and smiths,” the king of Babylon made further outbreaks impossible (compare to 1 Samuel 13:19).

Kimchi’s explanation of “smiths” is a curiosity of exegesis. He interprets them as “learned persons, who shut other people’s mouths, and propose riddles which nobody else can guess.”

Hitzig and Thenius derive the word (masgçr) from mas, “levy,” and gçr, “alien.” They suggest it would originally mean “statute labourers”—that is, “Canaanites compelled to work for the king”—and subsequently, as here, “manual labourers” in general. However, such a compound term in Hebrew would be very surprising.

The poorest sort. This refers to those who had neither property nor handicraft .