Jeremiah 52:28

History is the best expositor of prophecy; and therefore, for the better understanding of the prophecies of this book which relate to the destruction of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah, we are here furnished with an account of that sad event. It is much he same with the history we had 2 Kings 24 and 25, and many of the particulars we had before in that book, but the matter is here repeated and put together, to give light to the book of the Lamentations, which follows next, and to serve as a key to it. That article in the close concerning the advancement of Jehoiachin in his captivity, which happened after Jeremiah's time, gives colour to the conjecture of those who suppose that this chapter was not written by Jeremiah himself, but by some man divinely inspired among those in captivity, for a constant memorandum to those who in Babylon preferred Jerusalem above their chief joy. In this chapter we have, I. The bad reign of Zedekiah, very bad in regard both of sin and of punishment (Jer 52:1-3). II. The besieging and taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (Jer 52:4-7). III. The severe usage which Zedekiah and the princes met with (Jer 52:8-11). IV. The destruction of the temple and the city (Jer 52:12-14). V. The captivity of the people (Jer 52:15, Jer 52:16) and the numbers of those that were carried away into captivity (Jer 52:28-30). VI. The carrying off of the plunder of the temple (Jer 52:17-23). VII. The slaughter of the priests, and some other great men, in cold blood (Jer 52:24-27). VIII. The better days which king Jehoiachin lived to see in the latter end of his time, after the death of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 52:31-34).

52:28-30 The numbers in these verses amplify the data given in 2 Kgs 24:14-16 regarding the deportation of exiles in 597 BC. The deportation in Jer 52:30 is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture; it was probably a Babylonian reprisal for Gedaliah’s murder (41:1-3). This suggests that the person(s) responsible for making this adaptation lived after 581 BC, probably in Babylon. 52:28 The account in 2 Kgs 24:12-14 states that this event occurred in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighth year. This difference reflects two ancient Near Eastern methods of calculating the beginning of a king’s reign. In 2 Kings, the year in which Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne is treated as the first year of his reign. Jeremiah apparently started counting the first full year as Nebuchadnezzar’s first year.