1. They received =kind treatment=; were regarded not as slaves or prisoners, but as colonists. At a later captivity by the Ro'mans the Jews were sold as slaves and dispersed throughout the empire. Such wholesale enslavement was common after a conquest. For some reason the Chal-de'ans did not enslave the Jews at the time of their conquest, but colonized them as free people. This may have been because the captives as a class were of the "Chal-de'an party" among the Jews, and hence were treated in a measure as friends. The letter of Jer-e-mi'ah to the exiles (Jer. 29. 1-7) shows that they were kindly dealt with in Chal-de'a. Some of them were received at the court and rose to high station in the realm (Dan. 1. 1-6). 2. =Their organization was maintained.= The exiles were not merged into the mass of the people where they were living, but retained their own system and were recognized as a separate colony. Their dethroned kings had a semi-royal state and at death an honorable burial (Jer. 52. 31-34; 34. 4, 5). The captives were governed by elders, rulers of their own nation (Ezek. 8. 1; 14. 1; 20. 1). There was a "prince of Ju'dah" at the close of the captivity (Ezra 1. 8). This fact of national organization was a fortunate one for the exiles. If they had been dispersed as slaves throughout the empire, or even had been scattered as individuals, they would soon have been merged among the Gen'tiles, and would have lost their identity as a people. But being maintained as a separate race, and in Jew'ish communities, they were readily gathered for a return to their own land when the opportunity came. 3. =Their law and worship were observed.= There were no sacrifices, for these could be offered only at Je-ru'sa-lem in the temple. But the people gathered for worship and for the study of the law far more faithfully than before the exile; for adversity is a school of religious character far more than prosperity. The exile would naturally exert an influence in the direction of religion. While the irreligious and idolatrous among the captives would soon drop out of the nation and be lost among the Gen'tiles, the earnest, the spiritual, and the God-fearing would grow more intense in their devotion.