Jeremiah 38:10

38:10 Then the king gave Ebed Melech the Ethiopian the following order: “Take thirty ¹  men with you from here and go pull the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies.”

Jeremiah 52:29

52:29 in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, ²  832 people from Jerusalem;

Jeremiah 52:31

Jehoiachin in Exile

52:31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth ³  day of the twelfth month, ⁴  Evil-Merodach, in the first year of his reign, pardoned ⁵  King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.

[38:10]  ¹ tc Some modern English versions (e.g., NRSV, REB, TEV) and commentaries read “three” on the basis that thirty men would not be necessary for the task (cf. J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 231). Though the difference in “three” and “thirty” involves minimal emendation (שְׁלֹשָׁה [shÿlosha] for שְׁלֹשִׁים [shÿloshim]) there is no textual or versional evidence for it except for one Hebrew ms. Perhaps the number was large to prevent the officials from hindering Ebed Melech from accomplishing the task.

[52:29]  ² sn This would be 586 b.c.

[52:31]  ³ sn The parallel account in 2 Kgs 25:28 has “twenty-seventh.”

[52:31]  ⁴ sn The twenty-fifth day would be March 20, 561 b.c. in modern reckoning.

[52:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”