Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Jeremiah 52:30

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Jeremiah 52:30. Jeremiah 52:28.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

52:1-34 HISTORICAL APPENDIX

This appendix is similar to 2 Kings 24:18-30. The probable reason for its inclusion is to show how Jeremiah’s prophecies concerning Jerusalem’s last days were fulfilled.

Judah’s king during its last tragic years was Zedekiah. He was a weak king, whose reign was characterized throughout by religious failure and political indecision. Finally, after years of uncertain plotting, he decided to rebel openly against his overlord Babylon (52:1-3). Nebuchadnezzar could be patient with Zedekiah no longer and decided to crush Jerusalem once and for all. Soon his armies besieged the rebellious city (4-5).
Zedekiah had plotted his rebellion in cooperation with Egypt, and when Egypt eventually came to Jerusalem’s aid, Babylon temporarily lifted the siege. However, as Jeremiah had warned, the Babylonians soon forced the Egyptians to retreat. They then resumed their siege, with a determination to maintain it till the city fell (see 37:1-21).

The longer the siege lasted, the more desperate the situation in Jerusalem became. Throughout the city people were dying of disease and starvation (6; see Lamentations 2:10-12,Lamentations 2:19-21; Lamentations 4:4-5,Lamentations 4:7-9). After eighteen months of siege, the Babylonians broke through the city walls. With Jerusalem now doomed, Zedekiah and some of his men tried to escape, but were captured by enemy soldiers. Zedekiah was blinded, chained and taken off to prison in Babylon (7-11; see 39:1-7).

Babylonian soldiers then overran Jerusalem. They destroyed most of the city, including the temple, the palace and much of the city walls (12-14). They took most of the people into captivity, leaving behind only those that were of no use to them (15-16). They also stripped the temple of its valuable metals, taking its furnishings, decorations, vessels and utensils to Babylon. Things too large to carry whole were broken up so that they could be carried more easily (17-23). The leaders of the rebellion - the chief priests, top army officers and leading palace officials - were executed (24-27).
The writer concludes by recording the numbers of people taken into captivity at the times of the separate invasions. The smallness of his numbers, compared with those given in the book of 2 Kings, indicates that Jeremiah may have counted only the heads of the families. Some were taken captive in 597 BC, after Jehoiachin’s surrender (28; see 2 Kings 24:14-16); others in 587 BC, the year of the events recorded in this chapter (29); others later again, in 582 BC, after Ishmael’s assassination of Gedaliah (30; see Chapters 40-42).

In 561 BC, however, the new Babylonian king released the former Judean king Jehoiachin from prison and promoted him to a place of honour in the Babylonian palace. To the captive Jews this was a sign that God had not forgotten them and that he was still in control of their affairs. It gave them hope that they would yet be released and return to their homeland (31-34; cf. 2 Kings 24:8-15; 2 Kings 25:27-30).

APPENDIX

Contents of Jeremiah according to chronology

Not all Jeremiah’s prophecies can be assigned with certainty to a particular king’s reign. This applies especially to the first twenty chapters, where many of the messages would fit the reigns of either Josiah or Jehoiakim. Nevertheless, if the reader wants to trace the prophecies and events of Jeremiah’s time in some sort of chronological sequence (omitting the prophecies concerning foreign nations in Chapters 46-51), the following order of chapters is suggested:

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

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.Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1971), p. 202. Cawley and Millard dated them in "597 B.C., 586 B.C., and in 581 B.C."The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 658.

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"Ibid. 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"Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 690. 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.J. R. Dummelow's Commentary, p. 482, and H. Wheeler Robinson, Jeremiah in Peake's Bible Commentary, p. 495. 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 2 Kings 24:14.James P. Hyatt in the Interpreter's Bible, p. 1141.

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.Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 690,

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.C. F. Keil, Keil-Delitzsch's Old Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), pp. 328,329. 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."Ibid.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

C. The numbers deported to Babylon 52:24-30

The number of exiles who went into captivity was important, because it was on this group that the future of Israel depended. Their deportation also validated many of Jeremiah’s prophecies that predicted the people would go into captivity in Babylon.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The third group, of 745 people (presumably adult males), went to Babylon under Nebuzaradan’s authority in 581 B.C. This may have happened as the result of a punitive raid conducted after the assassination of Gedaliah. The total number of exiles counted here was 4,600 persons. This was a very small number of people.

"Perhaps the editor wanted to make the point that Yahweh could build a new future out of a mere handful of people." [Note: Thompson, p. 783.]

The first group of exiles really went to Babylon in 605 B.C. (2 Kings 24:1; 2 Chronicles 36:6-7; Daniel 1:1-7). Why did the writer not mention that group? Perhaps he wanted to record only three deportations, and not four, since three signified a complete work of God to the Israelites. [Note: See Feinberg, "Jeremiah," p. 690, and Dyer, "Jeremiah," pp. 1205-6, for other explanations.]

The total number of Jews who returned to Judah from Babylon at the end of the Exile, in three companies, amounted to about 97,000. About 50,000 returned in 536 B.C., about 5,000 in 458 B.C., and about 42,000 in 444 B.C.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

In the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadnezzar,.... In this year of his reign, the Jews say m, Tyre was delivered into his hands; and he carried off the Jews in Moab, Ammon, and the neighbouring nations, to the number after mentioned; though some think these were the poor people of the land he took from thence, after the murder of Gedaliah, and in revenge of that:

Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons; all which being put together make the following sum:

all the persons [were] four thousand and six hundred; this is the sum total of the three mentioned captivities.

m Seder Olam Rabba, c. 26. p. 77.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      24 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:   25 He took also out of the city an eunuch, which had the charge of the men of war; and seven men of them that were near the king's person, which were found in the city; and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and threescore men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city.   26 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.   27 And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.   28 This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty:   29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons:   30 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.

      We have here a very melancholy account, 1. Of the slaughter of some great men, in cold blood, at Riblah, seventy-two in number (according to the number of the elders of Israel, Numbers 11:24; Numbers 11:25), so they are computed, 2 Kings 25:18; 2 Kings 25:19. We read there of five out of the temple, two out of the city, five out of the court, and sixty out of the country. The account here agrees with that, except in one article; there it is said that there were five, here there were seven, of those that were near the king, which Dr. Lightfoot reconciles thus, that he took away seven of those that were near the king, but two of them were Jeremiah himself and Ebed-melech, who were both discharged, as we have read before, so that there were only five of them put to death, and so the number was reduced to seventy-two, some of all ranks, for they had all corrupted their way; and it is probable that such were made examples of as had been most forward to excite and promote the rebellion against the king of Babylon. Seraiah the chief priest is put first, whose sacred character could not exempt him from this stroke; how should it, when he himself had profaned it by sin? Seraiah the prince was a quiet prince (Jeremiah 51:59; Jeremiah 51:59), but perhaps Seraiah the priest was not so, but unquiet and turbulent, by which he had made himself obnoxious to the king of Babylon. The leaders of this people had caused them to err, and now they are in a particular manner made monuments of divine justice. 2. Of the captivity of the rest. Come and see how Judah was carried away captive out of his own land (Jeremiah 52:27; Jeremiah 52:27), and how it spued them out as it spued out the Canaanites that went before them, which God had told them it would certainly do if they trod in their steps and copied out their abominations, Leviticus 18:28. Now here is an account, (1.) Of two captivities which we had an account of before, one in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar (the same with that which is said to be in his eighth year, 2 Kings 24:12), another in his eighteenth year, the same with that which is said (Jeremiah 52:12; Jeremiah 52:12) to be in his nineteenth year. But the sums here are very small, in comparison with what we find expressed concerning the former (2 Kings 24:14; 2 Kings 24:16), when there were 18,000 carried captive, whereas here they are said to be 3023; they are also small in comparison with what we may reasonably suppose concerning the latter; for, when all the residue of the people were carried away (Jeremiah 52:15; Jeremiah 52:15), one would think there should be more than 832 souls; therefore Dr. Lightfoot conjectures that, these accounts being joined to the story of the putting to death of the great men at Riblah, all that are here said to be carried away were put to death as rebels. (2.) Of a third captivity, not mentioned before, which was in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, four years after the destruction of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 52:30; Jeremiah 52:30): Then Nebuzaradan came, and carried away 745 Jews; it is probable that this was done in revenge of the murder of Gedaliah, which was another rebellion against the king of Babylon, and that those who were now taken were aiders and abetters of Ishmael in that murder, and were not only carried away, but put to death for it; yet this is uncertain. If this be the sum total of the captives (all the persons were 4600, Jeremiah 52:30; Jeremiah 52:30), we may see how strangely they were reduced from what they had been, and may wonder as much how they came to be so numerous again as afterwards we find them; for it should seem that, as at first in Egypt, so again in Babylon, the Lord made them fruitful in the land of their affliction, and the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied. And the truth is, this people were often miracles both of judgment and mercy.