2:6

He had been carried into exile: It is not clear to whom exactly this refers and the Berean Standard Bible is ambiguous. There are three main possibilities:

(1) It refers to Kish, the great-grandfather of Mordecai. This seems to be the easiest way of understanding the Hebrew.

(Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, Contemporary English Version, God’s Word)

(2) It refers to Mordecai himself. However, if it were Mordecai himself who had been taken captive in 597 BC, he would be a very old man in 480 BC when this story takes place. So this seems rather unlikely.

(Good News Translation, Revised English Bible)

(3) It refers to Mordecai’s family, but not necessarily Mordecai himself. No major English version follows this interpretation.

Both (1) and (2) are possible grammatically, but (1) is more probable since it is unlikely that Mordecai was already 120 years old in this story.

carried into exile: This means to be taken away or sent away from your own country and forced to live in another place.

taken captive with Jeconiah king of Judah: This refers to when the Babylonians defeated the people of the tribe of Judah in 597 BC. King Nebuchadnezzar then took the king of Judah and many of his people back with him to Babylon as captives. When the OT refers to “Judah” it usually includes the tribe of Benjamin as well.

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