Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 52:28
This [is] the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty:
28 30. Enumeration of Nebuchadnezzar’s captives
28. in the seventh year ] These vv. are absent from the LXX and from 2 Kings 25 and apparently come out of a separate document from the rest. For “seventh” we should read seventeenth, for in Jehoiachin’s captivity the number was far greater than is here specified (2Ki 24:14; 2Ki 24:16). Thus the first deportation would consist of the men of Judah taken prisoners outside Jerusalem in the first year of the siege (Jer 39:1), the second ( Jer 52:29) of those carried captive “from Jerusalem” itself, but not including those taken into exile after the capture of the city. Of the third occurring some years later we have no other clear account, though we know from Josephus ( Ant. X. ix. 7) that Nebuchadnezzar in his 23rd year carried on considerable warlike operations in the direction of Palestine and in Egypt, carrying off Jews from that country to Babylon.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Seventh year – The suggestion is now generally received, that the word ten has dropped out before seven, and that the deportations mentioned here are all connected with the final war against Zedekiah. The calculation of Nebuchadnezzars reign is different from that used elsewhere, showing that the writer had access to a document not known to the compiler of the Book of Kings. In each date there is a difference of one year. The Septuagint omits Jer 52:28-30.
The number of the exiles carried away is small compared with the 42,360 men who returned Ezr 2:64-65, leaving a large Jewish population behind at Babylon. But a continual drain of people from Judaea was going on, and the 10,000 carried away with Jehoiachin formed the nucleus and center, and gave tone to the whole (see 2Ki 24:14). When they began to thrive in Babylon, large numbers would emigrate there of their own accord.
A comparison of this chapter with the parallel portion of 2 Kings shows that though not free from clerical errors and mistakes of copyists the body of the text is remarkably sound. Many of the differences between the two texts are abbreviations made purposely by the compiler of the Book of Kings; others are the result of negligence; and upon the whole the text of the Book of Kings is inferior to that of the Appendix to the Book of Jeremiah. Bearing in mind, however, that possibly they are not two transcripts of the same text, but the result of an independent use by two different writers of the same original authority, their complete agreement, except in trivial matters and mistakes easy of correction, is a satisfactory proof of the general trust-worthiness of the Masoretic Text in all more important particulars.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 28. – 30. On these verses Dr. Blayney has some sensible remarks; I will extract the substance. These verses are not inserted in 2 Kings xxv. Are we to conclude from these verses that the whole number of the Jews which Nebuchadnezzar, in all his expeditions, carried away, was no more than four thousand six hundred? This cannot be true; for he carried away more than twice that number at one time and this is expressly said to have been in the eighth year of his reign, 2Kg 24:12-16. Before that time he had carried off a number of captives from Jerusalem, in the first year of his reign, among whom were Daniel and his companions, Da 1:3-6. These are confessedly not noticed here. And as the taking and burning of Jerusalem is in this very chapter said to have been in the fourth and fifth months of the nineteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, those who were carried into captivity at the date of those events cannot possibly be the same with those that are said to be carried away either in the eighteenth or twenty-third year of that prince. Nor, indeed, is it credible that the number carried away at the time that the city was taken, and the whole country reduced, could be so few as eight hundred and thirty-two, (see Jer 52:29😉 supposing a mistake in the date of the year, which some are willing to do without sufficient grounds.
Here then we have three deportations, and those the most considerable ones, in the first, in the eighth, and nineteenth years of Nebuchadnezzar, sufficiently distinguished from those in the seventh, eighteenth, and twenty-third years. So that it seems most reasonable to conclude with Abp. Usher, in Chronologia Sacra, that by the latter three the historian meant to point out deportations of a minor kind, not elsewhere noticed in direct terms in Scripture.
The first of these, said to have been in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, was one of those that had been picked up in several parts of Judah by the band of Chaldeans, Syrians, and others, whom the king of Babylon sent against the land previously to his own coming, 2Kg 24:2.
That in the eighteenth year corresponds with the time when the Chaldean army broke off the siege before Jerusalem, and marched to meet the Egyptian army, at which time they might think it proper to send off the prisoners that were in camp, under a guard to Babylon.
And the last, in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, was when that monarch, being engaged in the siege of Tyre, sent off Nebuzaradan against the Moabites, Ammonites, and other neighbouring nations, who at the same time carried away the gleanings of Jews that remained in their own land, amounting in all to no more than seven hundred and forty-five.
Josephus speaks of this expedition against the Moabites and Ammonites, which he places in the twenty-third year or Nebuchadnezzar; but mentions nothing done in the land of Israel at that time. Only he says that after the conquest of those nations, Nebuchadnezzar carried his victorious arms against Egypt, which he in some measure reduced, and carried the Jews whom he found there captives to Babylon. But the Egyptian expedition was not till the twenty-seventh year of Jehoiachin’s captivity, i.e., the thirty-fifth of Nebuchadnezzar, as may be collected from Eze 29:17; so that those who were carried away in the twenty-third year were not from Egypt, but were, as before observed, the few Jews that remained in the land of Judah.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That is, in the time of Jehoiachin, 2Ki 24:12-14; here it is said to be in the seventh year, there in the eighth year, it might be in part of both. But there is a difference in the number of the captives, which are here said to be three thousand and twenty-three, and 2Ki 24:14,16, seven thousand, or eight. It is thought by some that the number here mentioned were such as properly belonged to Judah, and the number mentioned 2Ki 24, were the number of the captives of Judah and Benjamin. See the English Annotations.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. seventh yearin 2Ki 24:12;2Ki 24:14; 2Ki 24:16,it is said “the eighth year” of Nebuchadnezzar. Nodoubt it was in part about the end of the seventh year, in part aboutthe beginning of the eighth. Also in 2Ki24:1-20, ten thousand (Jer52:14), and seven thousand men of might, and a thousand craftsmen(Jer 52:16), are said to havebeen carried away, But here three thousand twenty-three. Probably thelatter three thousand twenty-three were of the tribe of Judah, theremaining seven thousand out of the ten thousand were of the othertribes, out of which many Israelites still had been left in the land.The thousand “craftsmen” were exclusive of the tenthousand, as appears, by comparing 2Ki 24:14;Jer 52:16. Probably the threethousand twenty-three of Judah were first removed in the end of “theseventh year”; the seven thousand and a thousand craftsmen inthe “eighth year.” This was at the first captivity underJehoiachin.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
This [is] the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive in the seventh year,…. That is, of his reign: in 2Ki 24:12; it is said to be in the eighth year of his reign; it being at the latter end of the seventh, and the beginning of the eighth, as Kimchi observes; this was the captivity of Jeconiah: the number of the captives then were
three thousand Jews, and three and twenty; but in 2Ki 24:14; they are said to be ten thousand; which may be reconciled thus, there were three thousand twenty and three of the tribe of Judah, here called Jews; and the rest were of the tribe of Benjamin, and of the ten tribes that were mixed among them; see 2Ki 24:16.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Vs. 28-30: A UST OF EXILES FROM JUDAH
Three different deputations are mentioned In this passage: 1. In the 7th year (597-596 B.C.), 3,023. 2. In the 11th year (593-592 B.C), 832. 3. In the 23rd year (582-581 B.C.), 745 – making a total of 4,600. These figures surely did not include women and children. 2Ki 24:14 mentions 10,000 being led away upon the removal of Jehoiachin -Ezekiel being among them, (Eze 1:1-3).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
B. Details About the Deportations Jer. 52:28-30
TRANSLATION
(28) These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar took captive: In the seventh year 3,023 Jews; in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, from Jerusalem 832; in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took captive 745 Jewsin all 4,600 persons.
COMMENTS
Jer. 52:28-30 have no parallel in the Book of Kings and the statistics given here are found nowhere else in Scripture. These verses speak of three deportations of Jews to Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. When one attempts to integrate the information contained in these verses with the data from the Book of Kings two problems arise one of which is chronological and the other, numerical. The two problems are really interrelated and difficult to treat separately.
1. The chronological problem
The basic chronological question is, How many times did Nebuchadnezzar deport Jewish captives to Babylon? Two facts are very clear. The first deportation took place in 605604 B.C., the third year of the reign of king Jehoiakim (Dan. 1:1). This deportation in which Daniel and his friends were taken to Babylon is not mentioned either in Kings or in Jeremiah 52. The last deportation took place in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar (582 B.C.), five years after the fall of Jerusalem. In this deportation, which is mentioned only in Jer. 52:30, 745 people were involved. Josephus states that in his twenty-third year Nebuchadnezzar deported Jews from Egypt, and the suggestion is made that in so doing he avenged the death of his governor Gedaliah. Now while the first and last deportations are fixed and acknowledged by all believing scholars, a real problem exists as to the deportations between 605 and 582 B.C. How many intervening deportations were there? When did they take place? No general agreement exists on these questions. The heart of the controversy is the interpretation of Jer. 52:28-29.
Jeremiah 52 speaks of deportations in the seventh and eighteenth years of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 52:28-29) while earlier in this same chapter (Jer. 52:12), in 2Ki. 24:12; 2Ki. 25:8 the eighth and nineteenth years are given as the dates for the deportations. The question over which Bible believing scholars are in disagreement is whether these passages in Kings and Jeremiah speak of four, three or only two deportations.
The view that only two deportations are mentioned in these verses is based on what is known about dating methods in the ancient Near East. Two different systems were used in antiquity for dating the reign of kings. One systemthe so-called accession year systembegins numbering the years of a kings reign on New Years day. The months which elapse between the day of the new king actually begins to reign and New Years day is called the accession year. The other system of dating starts numbering the years of a kings reign from the day he ascended the throne. Under this system, year one would be the which elapsed (even if it were only a matter of months or weeks) between the day the king assumed control and New Years day. In other words, the accession year of the one system would be year one of the other system. If one assumes that in Jer. 52:28-29 the writer is using the accession year method of dating and in II Kings the writer is using the non-accession year method then the seventh and eighteenth year of Jeremiah 52 would be equivalent to the eighth and nineteenth years of II Kings. According to this view the second deportation occurred in 597 B.C. and the third in 587 B.C. As appealing as this explanation may be, a serious problem exists for those who advocate it. If 2 Kings and Jer. 52:28-29 refer to the same deportations, how can one explain the divergent figures given in the two accounts of those who were taken captive?
A second approach to the chronological problem avoids the difficulty of the divergent numbers. Some have proposed that the deportations of Jer. 52:28-30 are included here because they have nowhere else been mentioned. According to this view Nebuchadnezzar deported Jewish captives to Babylon in his seventh year (598 B.C.), his eighth year (597 B.C.), his eighteenth year (588 B.C.), and his nineteenth year (587 B.C.). This explanation has the difficulty of trying to fit a Chaldean campaign and deportation into the known events of 598 B.C. The Babylonian Chronicle which gives a year by year account of the activities of Nebuchadnezzar makes no mention of a campaign in Syria-Palestine in 598 B.C. The Scriptures do not so much as hint that Jehoiakim was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar in the last year of his reign. Finally, it would be most strange that Jeremiah in his sermons would make no mention of a deportation involving 3,023 of his countrymen.
A third approach to the chronological problem must be mentioned because it has the support of some very able believing scholars. Keil and Streane suggest that originally Jer. 52:28 read seventeenth instead of seventh year. This would mean that one Hebrew wordthe word for tenhas dropped out of the text. The seventeenth year of Nebuchadnezzar would fall during the early part of the siege of Jerusalem. This deportation, so the theory goes on, consisted of those from the rural regions. In the next year, the eighteenth year, Jerusalem fell and another deportation took place (Jer. 52:29). According to this view, five deportations are recorded in Scripture: one in 605604 B.C., one in 597 B.C., one in 588 B.C., one in 587 and one in 582 B.C. The possibility that the word ten has dropped out of the text cannot be denied. This is exactly what happened in II Chronicle Jer. 36:9 (cf. 2Ki. 24:8) and it may have happened here. But it is always a dangerous practice to play around with the text of Scripture. No manuscript evidence exists for the reading seventeenth year in Jer. 52:28.
Of the three approaches to Jer. 52:28-29 the first, it seems to this writer, is superior. But this raises the second major problem, the numerical one.
2. The numerical Problem
The deportation account in II Kings states more than 10,000 people were hauled off to Babylon in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki. 24:11-16); Jeremiah 52 states that 3,023 persons were carried away captive in the seventh year of that king (Jer. 52:28). If these two passages are referring to the same deportation how can the difference in the number of captives be explained? Several different proposals have been made by believing scholars.
1. The lower figure of 3,023 may be the males; the higher figure in Kings the total of all people deported.
2. The higher number represents the total taken captive in Jerusalem; the lower figure those who actually survived the long, rigorous journey.
3. The figure in Jer. 52:28 is a partial or supplemental figure to that mentioned in II Kings.
It is then possible at least three different ways to reconcile Jer. 52:28 and 2Ki. 24:11-16. However the figures are harmonized, the believing scholar must press for the accuracy of both Kings and Jeremiah 52 in regard to those taken captive in 597 B.C. The Babylonians, like the Assyrians, kept a tally of their captives and some such numerical record probably underlies the figures here in Jeremiah.
As regards the number taken captive in 587 B.C. when Jerusalem was captured a problem of a different kind exists. While no specific figures are given in Kings, one gets the impression that a rather sizeable portion of the population was carried away captive to Babylon in that year. Yet Jer. 52:29 numbers the deportees as 832. Even if this number represents only males of fighting age it still remains a rather pitifully small figure. Some explain the 832 as being persons outside the city of Jerusalem who were taken away to Babylon during the eighteen month siege. According to this view the 832 would be in addition to the vast throngs taken to Babylon after the city actually fell. John Bright explains the 832 as being only those from the urban population of Jerusalem. He suggests that the figure may have been taken from a Babylonian list giving the number of prisoners actually delivered i.e., those who survived the march.[431]
[431] Bright, op. cit., pp. L, LIII, notes 14 and 18.
A final numerical problem remains: How is the rather small total figure of 4,600 in Jer. 52:30 to be reconciled with the much larger number who returned with Zerubbabel in 53736 B.C.? Three things must be kept in mind. (1) The figure in Jer. 52:30 does not include the deportation of 605604 B.C. (2) It is not impossible that a constant emigration of Jews to Babylon took place in the later reign of Nebuchadnezzar. (3) A lapse of about two generations exists between the deportations and return thus allowing for the multiplication of the captives while in Babylon.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(28) This is the people . . .Here the parallelism with 2 Kings 25, which goes on to give a brief summary of the history of Gedaliah and Ishmael, as narrated in Jeremiah 40-43, ceases, and the writer of the appendix goes on to give particulars as to the various stages of the deportation of the captives. It presents some difficulties in detail. (1) The date given here, the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, does not agree with 2Ki. 24:12, which gives the eighth year as the time of the first deportation after the defeat of Jehoiachin. (2) The number of the captives then carried into exile, given in 2Ki. 24:14 at 10,000, besides the craftsmen and the smiths, is given here as 3,023. The precision of the number seems to imply reference to a register or record of some kind, and so far bears prim facie evidence of accuracy. Probably the word ten has dropped out before seven, and we have here the record of a second deportation in the seventeenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, while the siege of Jerusalem was going on, and made up in part of prisoners taken in skirmishes, and partly of the numerous Jews who fell away to the Chaldans (Jer. 37:13).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
28-30. In these verses we have an enumeration of the different deportations of Jews by Nebuchadrezzar, namely, first, 3,023 in the seventh year of his reign; second, 832 in the eighteenth year of his reign; and third, 745 in the twenty-third year of his rule; thus giving for the total, 4,600.
In this statement there are, as all confess, serious, if not inexplicable, difficulties. For example, in Jer 52:12 the second deportation is represented as occurring in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, instead of the eighteenth as here; and the first deportation was, as we learn from 2Ki 24:12, in the eighth, and not in the seventh, year of his reign, and was much more numerous than is here stated. Hence many accept the suggestion of Ewald, that the word ten before seven has been dropped out of the Hebrew text, and that the true reading should be seventeenth. This would lead to the conclusion that we have mentioned here, simply three deportations in the final war of Zedekiah, occurring in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and twenty-third years of Nebuchadrezzar’s reign. The first took place a year before the fall of Jerusalem, and probably embraced people taken from the country districts of Judea. This accounts for the smallness of the number, three thousand and twenty-three. In the following year were added eight hundred and thirty-two others, who may have been selected because they were judged to be turbulent and dangerous men. Finally, at a later time, probably on the occasion of the war with the Ammonites and Moabites mentioned by Josephus, ( Antiq., Jer 10:9 ; Jer 10:7,) seven hundred and forty-five more were carried away, perhaps because they too were judged likely to become disturbers of the peace.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 52:28-30
28These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away into exile: in the seventh year 3,023 Jews; 29in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar 832 persons from Jerusalem; 30in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile 745 Jewish people; there were 4,600 persons in all.
Jer 52:28-30 These verses list the different groups, numbers, and the dates they were exiled. Remember the city of Jerusalem was partially captured in 605, 597, 586, and completely in 582 B.C. The current event was 586 B.C. Earlier events were 605 and 597 B.C. A later event was after the murder of Gedaliah (582 B.C.). This account may have been written before or after 582 B.C., but the twenty-third year of Jer 52:30 fits 582 B.C., if one calculates from 605 B.C. The total number of people exiled in this list is 4,600.
These verses are absent in the LXX. The numbers differ with the Kings account. These historical records of Kings and Jeremiah are very similar but not exact. Both apparently used the same source (cf. Tyndale OT Series, p. 190). Possibly Jeremiah 52 lists only the adult males.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the seventh year. This was at the beginning of Nebuchadrezzar’s second siege, the year before Jehoiachin’s captivity, 490 B.C.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 52:28-30
Jer 52:28-30
THREE DEPORTATIONS OF JEWS TO BABYLON
This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty; in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons; in the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.
Green dated the three deportations mentioned here as having happened in 597 B.C., 587 B.C., and 582 B.C. Cawley and Millard dated them in “597 B.C., 586 B.C., and in 581 B.C.”
The astounding thing about these numbers is that some 40,000 or more returned to Judah after the seventy year exile ended; and according to Josephus they left many times that number in Babylon. Were all those Jews, some seventy years later, descended from the relatively small number recorded here? Cawley and Millard, as well as other scholars, suppose that, “Only men who were heads of families” were counted in this enumeration.
Besides that, many of the Jews scattered throughout Palestine by the military action would have, after the war, found their way to Babylon, where they could again be united with their people. Remember that Jerusalem had been effectively wiped out as a suitable place to live. There can hardly be any doubt that, “The total number of the exiles was far higher” than the totals given here.
There is also another explanation of the low numbers of exiles mentioned here, an explanation sanctioned both by Keil and by Dummelow. It concerns the term “seventh” year of Nebuchadrezzar. Robinson and Dummelow both believed that this word is “seventeenth,” not “seventh,” requiring the understanding that those deportations on the seventeenth and eighteenth years in succession actually refer to the single deportation dated in 587/586 B.C. For technical reasons for this understanding of “seventh,” see comments of those scholars. Of course, Hyatt and other liberal scholars would like to keep the number at “seventh” because it poses a “contradiction” with “the ten thousand” deportees mentioned in 2Ki 24:14
It never fails to amaze us that radical critics will receive any kind of an “emendation” that favors their purpose; they nevertheless refuse to receive any “emendation” that would relieve an apparent contradiction. Feinberg commented on this.
In view of these things, we favor the emendation that would totally relieve all of the apparent contradictions relative to the number of Jewish exiles. The only objection to this change is that it would speak of a deportation a year before Jerusalem fell; but that is very likely to have happened to all of those people who heeded Jeremiah and defected tothe Babylonian forces prior to the fall of the city. In any case, Keil has very ably defended this emendation. He explained the necessity for changing “seventh” to seventeenth, saying, “It settles all the difficulties and enables us to account for the small number sent to Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem.”
Details About the Deportations Jer 52:28-30
Jer 52:28-30 have no parallel in the Book of Kings and the statistics given here are found nowhere else in Scripture. These verses speak of three deportations of Jews to Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. When one attempts to integrate the information contained in these verses with the data from the Book of Kings two problems arise one of which is chronological and the other, numerical. The two problems are really interrelated and difficult to treat separately.
1. The chronological problem
The basic chronological question is, How many times did Nebuchadnezzar deport Jewish captives to Babylon? Two facts are very clear. The first deportation took place in 605-604 B.C., the third year of the reign of king Jehoiakim (Dan 1:1). This deportation in which Daniel and his friends were taken to Babylon is not mentioned either in Kings or in Jeremiah 52. The last deportation took place in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar (582 B.C.), five years after the fall of Jerusalem. In this deportation, which is mentioned only in Jer 52:30, 745 people were involved. Josephus states that in his twenty-third year Nebuchadnezzar deported Jews from Egypt, and the suggestion is made that in so doing he avenged the death of his governor Gedaliah. Now while the first and last deportations are fixed and acknowledged by all believing scholars, a real problem exists as to the deportations between 605 and 582 B.C. How many intervening deportations were there? When did they take place? No general agreement exists on these questions. The heart of the controversy is the interpretation of Jer 52:28-29.
Jeremiah 52 speaks of deportations in the seventh and eighteenth years of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 52:28-29) while earlier in this same chapter (Jer 52:12), in 2Ki 24:12; 2Ki 25:8 the eighth and nineteenth years are given as the dates for the deportations. The question over which Bible believing scholars are in disagreement is whether these passages in Kings and Jeremiah speak of four, three or only two deportations.
The view that only two deportations are mentioned in these verses is based on what is known about dating methods in the ancient Near East. Two different systems were used in antiquity for dating the reign of kings. One system-the so-called accession year system-begins numbering the years of a kings reign on New Years day. The months which elapse between the day of the new king actually begins to reign and New Years day is called the accession year. The other system of dating starts numbering the years of a kings reign from the day he ascended the throne. Under this system, year one would be the which elapsed (even if it were only a matter of months or weeks) between the day the king assumed control and New Years day. In other words, the accession year of the one system would be year one of the other system. If one assumes that in Jer 52:28-29 the writer is using the accession year method of dating and in II Kings the writer is using the non-accession year method then the seventh and eighteenth year of Jeremiah 52 would be equivalent to the eighth and nineteenth years of II Kings. According to this view the second deportation occurred in 597 B.C. and the third in 587 B.C. As appealing as this explanation may be, a serious problem exists for those who advocate it. If 2 Kings and Jer 52:28-29 refer to the same deportations, how can one explain the divergent figures given in the two accounts of those who were taken captive?
A second approach to the chronological problem avoids the difficulty of the divergent numbers. Some have proposed that the deportations of Jer 52:28-30 are included here because they have nowhere else been mentioned. According to this view Nebuchadnezzar deported Jewish captives to Babylon in his seventh year (598 B.C.), his eighth year (597 B.C.), his eighteenth year (588 B.C.), and his nineteenth year (587 B.C.). This explanation has the difficulty of trying to fit a Chaldean campaign and deportation into the known events of 598 B.C. The Babylonian Chronicle which gives a year by year account of the activities of Nebuchadnezzar makes no mention of a campaign in Syria-Palestine in 598 B.C. The Scriptures do not so much as hint that Jehoiakim was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar in the last year of his reign. Finally, it would be most strange that Jeremiah in his sermons would make no mention of a deportation involving 3,023 of his countrymen.
A third approach to the chronological problem must be mentioned because it has the support of some very able believing scholars. Keil and Streane suggest that originally Jer 52:28 read seventeenth instead of seventh year. This would mean that one Hebrew word-the word for ten-has dropped out of the text. The seventeenth year of Nebuchadnezzar would fall during the early part of the siege of Jerusalem. This deportation, so the theory goes on, consisted of those from the rural regions. In the next year, the eighteenth year, Jerusalem fell and another deportation took place (Jer 52:29). According to this view, five deportations are recorded in Scripture: one in 605-604 B.C., one in 597 B.C., one in 588 B.C., one in 587 and one in 582 B.C. The possibility that the word ten has dropped out of the text cannot be denied. This is exactly what happened in II Chronicle Jer 36:9 (cf. 2Ki 24:8) and it may have happened here. But it is always a dangerous practice to play around with the text of Scripture. No manuscript evidence exists for the reading seventeenth year in Jer 52:28.
Of the three approaches to Jer 52:28-29 the first, it seems to this writer, is superior. But this raises the second major problem, the numerical one.
2. The numerical Problem
The deportation account in II Kings states more than 10,000 people were hauled off to Babylon in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki 24:11-16); Jeremiah 52 states that 3,023 persons were carried away captive in the seventh year of that king (Jer 52:28). If these two passages are referring to the same deportation how can the difference in the number of captives be explained? Several different proposals have been made by believing scholars.
1. The lower figure of 3,023 may be the males; the higher figure in Kings the total of all people deported.
2. The higher number represents the total taken captive in Jerusalem; the lower figure those who actually survived the long, rigorous journey.
3. The figure in Jer 52:28 is a partial or supplemental figure to that mentioned in II Kings.
It is then possible at least three different ways to reconcile Jer 52:28 and 2Ki 24:11-16. However the figures are harmonized, the believing scholar must press for the accuracy of both Kings and Jeremiah 52 in regard to those taken captive in 597 B.C. The Babylonians, like the Assyrians, kept a tally of their captives and some such numerical record probably underlies the figures here in Jeremiah.
As regards the number taken captive in 587 B.C. when Jerusalem was captured a problem of a different kind exists. While no specific figures are given in Kings, one gets the impression that a rather sizeable portion of the population was carried away captive to Babylon in that year. Yet Jer 52:29 numbers the deportees as 832. Even if this number represents only males of fighting age it still remains a rather pitifully small figure. Some explain the 832 as being persons outside the city of Jerusalem who were taken away to Babylon during the eighteen month siege. According to this view the 832 would be in addition to the vast throngs taken to Babylon after the city actually fell. John Bright explains the 832 as being only those from the urban population of Jerusalem. He suggests that the figure may have been taken from a Babylonian list giving the number of prisoners actually delivered i.e., those who survived the march.
A final numerical problem remains: How is the rather small total figure of 4,600 in Jer 52:30 to be reconciled with the much larger number who returned with Zerubbabel in 537-36 B.C.? Three things must be kept in mind. (1) The figure in Jer 52:30 does not include the deportation of 605-604 B.C. (2) It is not impossible that a constant emigration of Jews to Babylon took place in the later reign of Nebuchadnezzar. (3) A lapse of about two generations exists between the deportations and return thus allowing for the multiplication of the captives while in Babylon.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
am 3404, bc 600
in the: 2Ki 24:2, 2Ki 24:3, 2Ki 24:12-16, Dan 1:1-3
Reciprocal: Deu 28:62 – few in number 2Ki 24:14 – Jerusalem 2Ki 24:16 – seven thousand 1Ch 6:15 – when the Lord Isa 6:12 – the Lord Jer 6:9 – They shall Jer 39:9 – carried Eze 12:11 – remove and go Oba 1:11 – in the day that the Mat 1:11 – about
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 52:28-30. This paragraph gives some historical details that are left out of the book of 2 Kings. We know the third stage of the great captivity took place at the end of Zedekiah’s ll-year reign. At that time the king of Babylon took most of the citizens away with him, yet he left some remaining in Palestine. {See 2Ki 25:12-13; 2Ki 25:22.) Some of these who were left In the land became restless and escaped into the land of Egypt. (Jeremiah 42 and 43.) Of others who were stil! remaining, the king of Babylon finally brought Into his realm those mentioned in this paragraph.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 52:28-30. This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive These verses are not inserted in 2 Kings 25. Nor are they to be found here, according to the Roman and Alexandrian editions of the LXX.; but in the Complutensian they are, and in two MSS. collated by Dr. Grabe; also in Theodotions version in the Hexapla. All the other ancient versions acknowledge them; and they are not omitted in any of the collated Hebrew MSS.; so that there is no doubt of their being genuine. But are we to conclude from them, that the whole number of the Jews, whom Nebuchadnezzar, in all his expeditions, carried into captivity, was no more than four thousand six hundred? This cannot be true, for he carried away more than twice that number at one time; which is expressly said to have been in the eighth year of his reign, 2Ki 24:12-16. Before that time he had carried off a number of captives from Jerusalem in the first year of his reign, among whom were Daniel and his companions, Dan 1:3-6. And of these Berosus, the Chaldean historian, speaks, as cited by Josephus, Ant., lib. 10. cap. 11. These are confessedly not taken notice of here. And as the taking and burning of Jerusalem are in this very chapter said to have been in the fourth and fifth months of the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar, those who were carried into captivity, at the date of those events, cannot possibly be the same with those that are said to be carried away either in the 18th or 23d year of that prince. Nor indeed is it credible, that the number carried away at the time the city was taken, and the whole country reduced, could be so few as eight hundred and thirty-two. Here then we have three deportations, and those the most considerable ones, in the 1st, the 8th, and 19th years of Nebuchadnezzar, sufficiently distinguished from those in his 7th, 18th, and 23d years. So that it seems most reasonable to conclude, with Archbishop Usher, that by the latter three the historian meant to point out deportations of a lesser kind, not elsewhere noticed in direct terms in Scripture. Blaney.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
52:28 This [is] the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the {m} seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty:
(m) Which was the latter end of the seventh year of his reign and the beginning of the eighth.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Nebuchadnezzar carried three groups of Judahites into captivity. In 597 B.C. he deported 3,023 Jews. This number may be only the adult males, or only the adult males from Jerusalem, since in 2Ki 24:14; 2Ki 24:16, the number taken is 10,000 or 8,000, respectively.