The rest of the people refers to those who had been left after the earlier deportation of the wealthiest and most influential citizens (2 Kgs 24.14). Since the Hebrew noun translated people is used often to refer more specifically to the “army,” these words may also be rendered “the rest of the army.”
Who were left in the city: This passive expression may be made active by saying “who remained in the city” or “who had not departed from the city.”
The deserters who had deserted to the King of Babylon is literally “the fallen who had fallen away to the King of Babylon.” This probably refers to people who had given themselves up willingly to the Babylonians while the siege of Jerusalem was still taking place. They did not resist to the end. Yet they too were eventually deported. The rendering of New Century Version (“those who had surrendered to the king of Babylon”) is probably inaccurate and should not be followed. Desertion involves more than mere surrender (see the comments on “go over” at 2 Kgs 7.4) since it takes place before defeat is certain. In certain languages this expression may have to be translated something like “the people of Judah who had given themselves up to the king of Babylonia while the battle continued.”
The rest of the multitude: Part of the Septuagint tradition speaks rather of “the rest of the artisans,” which is the basis of the Good News Translation rendering as well as the translation of Revised English Bible (“any remaining artisans”). Other versions following this reading are New American Bible, Moffatt, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, Bible en français courant, La Bible Pléiade, and Osty-Trinquet. The Hebrew words for multitude and “artisans” are very similar in spelling. The corrected text with “artisans,” which is based on the parallel passage in Jer 52.15, is probably not justified. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {B} degree of certainty to the reading followed by Revised Standard Version.
In some languages it may be considered unnecessarily redundant to repeat the fact that Nebuzaradan was the captain of the guard since this information is given in verses 8 and 10.
Good News Translation restructures this verse by placing the subject (“Nebuzaradan”) and the verb (“took away”) at the beginning of the sentence. Translators may have to do the same in other languages.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .