The number of exiles who went into captivity was important because it was with this group that the future of Israel lay. Their deportation also validated many of Jeremiah's prophecies that the people would go into captivity in Babylon.
52:24 Nebuzaradan took captive Seraiah, the chief priest, Zephaniah (29:24-32; 37:3), the priest who was second in authority, and three other temple officials. Seraiah's grandfather, Hilkiah, was King Josiah's chief priest (1 Chron. 6:13-15). Seraiah's son was Ezra the reformer (Ezra 7:1). Seraiah's grandson, Joshua, by another son, Jehozadak, was the chief priest after the Exile when the returned Israelites rebuilt the temple (Ezra 5:2; Hag. 1:1).
"The other priest name here, Zephaniah, seems by his high position to have been the one who had passed on a threat of the stocks and collar' to Jeremiah over this very question of the temple vessels a few years earlier [cf. 29:24-29]. On two subsequent occasions he had been part of a deputation from the king to consult the prophet over the siege of Jerusalem [21:1-2; 37:3-5]. But Jeremiah's call to surrender had seemed too radical, and now the city's leaders had to pay the price that Babylon put on their refusal."625
52:25 Nebuzaradan also took the minister of defense, seven of Zedekiah's advisors who had not escaped, another high-ranking army officer, and 60 other men in the city who were evidently important political prisoners.
52:26-27 Nebuzaradan took all these prisoners to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, and the king executed them there. This completed the deportation of the Judahites from their land.
52:28 Nebuchadnezzar carried three groups of Judahites into captivity. In 597 B.C. he deported 3,023 Jews. This number may be only the adult males, or only the adult males from Jerusalem, since in 2 Kings 14 and 16 the number taken is 10, 800.
52:29 Then in 586 B.C. he took an additional 832 Jews to Babylon. Again, adult males are probably in view.
52:30 The third group of 745 people (adult males) went to Babylon under Nebuzaradan's authority in 581 B.C.626This 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."627
