Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 39:9

"Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the residue of the people that remained in the city, the deserters also that fell away to him, and the residue of the people that remained." — Jeremiah 39:9 (ASV)

Then Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard. The title in Hebrew, Bab-tab-bachim, again takes a form like that of Rab-saris and Rab-shaken and literally means "chief of the slaughterers." This title is given to Potiphar in Genesis 37:36 and probably corresponded to our "commander of the king’s bodyguard."

The name Nebuzar-adan has been interpreted as "the prince-lord, or the worshipper, of Nebo," but the etymology of the last three syllables is uncertain. He does not appear to have taken part with the other generals in the siege of Jerusalem. Instead, he arrived after the city’s capture, a month later (Jeremiah 52:12), to direct the work of destruction, even in its minute details (2 Kings 25:9).

The defenders and deserters were involved in the same fate of exile. It hardly needs to be said that, as in the case of the conquests of Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 15:29), Shalmaneser (2 Kings 17:6), Esarhaddon (2 Kings 17:24), and Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:32), this wholesale deportation was part of the systematic policy of the great Assyrian and Babylonian monarchs. Similarly, Darius carried off the Paeonians from Thrace (Herodotus, Book 5, Chapter 14).

Distributing the lands of these dispossessed exiles among "the poor of the people" was thought likely to enlist their interests on the side of the conqueror. Furthermore, maintaining the cultivation of the soil secured the payment of tribute.