Esther 2 · a question people ask
Was Mordecai himself carried away from Jerusalem?
Esther 2:5 gives Mordecai's line, and 2:6 goes on: "who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away" (2:6) (tap carried away). The words who had been carried away come straight after "the son of Kish, a Benjamite" (2:5), so they can be read of Mordecai or of Kish, the last man named; in Hebrew the verb is masculine and singular, which fits either. The chapter doesn't settle it, and this study doesn't either. What the verse does say is that Mordecai's family is tied to that exile. Jeremiah names the same king and captor: "Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah" (Jeremiah 24:1).
The verses
“There was a certain Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.”
“The LORD showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the LORD’s temple, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.”