And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.
All Commentaries on 2 Kings 24:16 Go To 2 Kings 24
John Cassian
AD 435
There is an illustration of this—namely, of the fact that when vainglory makes its appearance the vice of fornication is expelled, as we have said—that is put in beautiful and clear language in the book of Kings. It occurs when Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, has come up from Egypt and taken the captive people of Israel away from Neco, king of Egypt, to his own country, not in order to restore to them their former freedom and their birthplace but to lead those who would be transported to his own land, which was still further away than where they had been held captive in the land of Egypt. This illustration can be well understood in the following way. Although it is more tolerable to be subject to the vice of vainglory than to that of fornication, yet it is more difficult to escape from the domination of vainglory. For, so to say, one who has been held captive for a relatively long time will return less easily to his native soil and to his old-established freedom, and rightly is that prophetic rebuke directed to him: “Why have you grown in a foreign land?” Whoever is not removed from earthly vices is appropriately said to have grown old in a foreign land.
