2 Kings 24:14–16 and Jeremiah 52:28
How many were deported in 597 BC?
2 Kings 24:14 gives 10,000 captives; 24:16 gives 7,000 men of might and 1,000 craftsmen; Jeremiah 52:28 gives 3,023 in Nebuchadnezzar's seventh year. The library's Greek of 24:16 has 70,000. Greek Jeremiah lacks 52:28–30.
Read 2 Kings 24:14–16 and Jeremiah 52:28 in every edition
Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Every witness, in order
Unknown (debated)
Original Kings
No original survives.
Book of Jeremiah, 6th century BC onward
Jeremiah 52:28 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
בִּשְׁנַת־שֶׁבַע יְהוּדִים שְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים וְעֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה
in the seventh year, Jews three thousand and twenty-three
Jeremiah 52:28–30 lists three deportations totaling 4,600.
Translated c. 2nd century BC
Septuagint, Jeremiah 52 (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Greek Jeremiah has no 52:28–30. Greek Jeremiah is about one-seventh shorter than the Hebrew overall. One Greek text (Vaticanus type, kaige revision) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.
Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. AD
Septuagint, 4 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
au nombre de dix mille (24:14)… au nombre de soixante-dix mille (24:16)
ten thousand… seventy thousand
70,000 may be a slip in Giguet's translation or printing; not checked in Greek. One Greek text (Vaticanus type, kaige revision) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
decem millia (24:14)… septem millia (24:16)
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
עֲשֶׂרֶת אֲלָפִים (24:14)… שִׁבְעַת אֲלָפִים… אֶלֶף (24:16)
ten thousand… seven thousand… a thousand
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
ten thousand captives… seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand
What changed, and why
The figures may count different groups (all households vs adult men), different moments (Jeremiah's "seventh year" may be an earlier group), or come from different sources. The site does not add them into one total.
What the evidence shows
- Kings and Jeremiah give different figures.
- Greek Jeremiah lacks 52:28–30.
Sources
- E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)
Related lessons
- Babylon's First Capture of Jerusalem →Jehoiakim becomes Nebuchadnezzar's vassal for three years, then rebels; raiders from Babylon, Aram, Moab and Ammon attack Judah. His son Jehoiachin, eighteen, reigns three months. Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem; Jehoiachin surrenders with his mother and officials, and is taken to Babylon with the temple treasures, the elite, soldiers and craftsmen. Nebuchadnezzar makes Mattaniah king, renaming him Zedekiah, who later rebels.
- Evidence Case: The Two Exiles →Israel was deported by Assyria (732 and 722–720 BC) and Judah by Babylon (597, 587/586 and 582 BC). The two empires used deportation differently, and the two peoples' fates differed. Neither land was emptied.