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Jeremiah 52:28-30
A numbered register follows, summarizing three deportations with dates and headcounts to quantify the captivity described earlier.
Meaning in context
A numbered register follows, summarizing three deportations with dates and headcounts to quantify the captivity described earlier.
Section 7 of 8
Deportation totals across three removals
A numbered register follows, summarizing three deportations with dates and headcounts to quantify the captivity described earlier.
Movement
Warning before Jerusalem falls
Artifact
Prophetic lament and new covenant promise
Biblical Timeline
Kingdom
Jeremiah context: 1000 BC - 586 BC
Biblical Timeline
Kingdom
Jeremiah context
Kingdom / 1000 BC - 586 BC
Jeremiah context is set in the kingdom period, where Israel's monarchy from David and Solomon to exile.
Scripture Text
Thesis
A numbered register follows, summarizing three deportations with dates and headcounts to quantify the captivity described earlier.
Verse by Verse
First count, dated to Nebuchadrezzar’s seventh year The verse introduces the whole list as “the people” Nebuchadrezzar carried away. It then gives the first dated entry: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews were deported. The logic is simple: date first, then number.
Second count, dated to Nebuchadrezzar’s eighteenth year A second removal is listed, again tied to a regnal year. In Nebuchadrezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people were taken “from Jerusalem.” This entry is smaller and specifies the city as the source location.
Third count, dated to Nebuchadrezzar’s twenty-third year, plus total The third entry is dated to the twenty-third year and adds the agent’s name: Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away 745 Jews. The passage then sums all the listed “persons” (using the common term persons) and states the combined total: 4,600.
Literary Context
These verses sit inside Jeremiah’s closing historical appendix (Jeremiah 52), which retells the fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and the fate of leaders and survivors. After describing the city’s breach, the burning of major buildings, and further removals, the chapter pauses to provide a compact numerical note. Jeremiah 52:28–30 reads like a record excerpt: it is not a speech, not a poem, and not an argument, but a brief accounting meant to summarize successive deportations with dates and totals.
Historical Context
The setting is the Babylonian takeover of Judah in the early sixth century BC, when Babylon replaced Judah’s kings with client rulers and repeatedly removed parts of the population. The passage assumes a royal-year dating system tied to Nebuchadrezzar’s reign and reflects an administrative interest in counting deportees. It also names Nebuzaradan, a high-ranking Babylonian officer involved in enforcement and relocation, which matches the broader picture of Babylon using military and palace officials to secure the province after rebellion and to redistribute people within the empire.
Theological Significance
Questions
Keep Studying
Jeremiah 52:28–30 is a short record-style note that lists three deportations under Babylonian control and gives a headcount for each. Each removal is dated by the year of Nebuchadrezzar’s reign, and the passage ends by adding the three figures into one combined total. This supports the larger story in Jeremiah 52: Judah’s collapse included not just destroyed buildings and replaced leaders, but repeated, organized population transfers.
Explicitly, the text claims: (1) three removals occurred in three regnal years, (2) the figures are 3,023; 832; 745, and (3) their summed total is 4,600 “persons” (persons). It also explicitly names Nebuzaradan as the agent in the third event.
Two main questions come up when readers try to relate these numbers to other exile reports.
First, some think these totals are meant to cover all deportees from Judah and Jerusalem across the period. Others think they count only a subset (for example, people of a certain status, location, or administrative category), so the larger exile population could be higher.
Second, some read the regnal-year labels as straightforward calendar anchors; others note that different ways of counting a king’s years (and different starting points used in ancient record-keeping) can shift how these dates line up with other biblical timelines.
Why the disagreement exists The passage gives precise numbers but does not explain who exactly is being counted (entire households or only certain categories), and it does not spell out how the regnal years were calculated. It also uses “from Jerusalem” only in the second entry, which raises questions about whether each count has the same scope.
What this passage clearly contributes This note contributes concrete, dated markers that portray exile as a series of removals rather than one single event. It also shows Babylon’s administrative approach: deportation could be counted and summarized, and a named official could be attached to a particular removal. Within Jeremiah 52’s closing appendix, these numbers function like a compact ledger entry that underscores the scale and progression of Judah’s loss.