Jeremiah 52:28-30

B. Details About the Deportations Jeremiah 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

Jeremiah 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 (Daniel 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 Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 52:28-29.

Jeremiah 52 speaks of deportations in the seventh and eighteenth years of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 52:28-29) while earlier in this same chapter (Jeremiah 52:12), in 2 Kings 24:12; 2 Kings 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 king's 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 king's 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 Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 36:9 (cf. 2 Kings 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 Jeremiah 52:28.

Of the three approaches to Jeremiah 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 (2 Kings 24:11-16); Jeremiah 52 states that 3,023 persons were carried away captive in the seventh year of that king (Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 52:28 and 2 Kings 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 Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 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.