Here is the official record of the number of people<n id="1" /> Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year,<n id="2" /> 3,023 Jews;

Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved.<n id="1" />

&#8220;Take some large stones<n id="1" /> and bury them in the mortar of the clay pavement<n id="2" /> at the entrance of Pharaoh&#8217;s residence<n id="3" /> here in Tahpanhes. Do it while the people of Judah present there are watching.<n id="4" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> spoke to Jeremiah concerning<n id="1" /> all the Judeans who were living in the land of Egypt, those in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and in the region of southern Egypt.<n id="2" />

I took both copies of the deed of purchase<n id="1" /> and gave them to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah. I gave them to him in the presence<n id="2" /> of my cousin<n id="3" /> Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the deed of purchase, and all the Judeans who were housed in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, &#8220;I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Babylonians.<n id="1" /> The Babylonians might hand me over to them and they will torture me.&#8221;<n id="2" />

Moreover, all the Judeans who were in Moab, Ammon, Edom, and all the other countries heard what had happened. They heard that the king of Babylon had allowed some people to stay in Judah and that he had appointed Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, to govern them.

So all these Judeans returned to the land of Judah from the places where they had been scattered. They came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Thus they harvested a large amount of wine and dates and figs.<n id="1" />p>

Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke privately to Gedaliah there at Mizpah, &#8220;Let me go and kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah before anyone knows about it. Otherwise he will kill you<n id="1" /> and all the Judeans who have rallied around you will be scattered. Then what remains of Judah will disappear.&#8221;

Ishmael also killed all the Judeans<n id="1" /> who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah and the Babylonian<n id="2" /> soldiers who happened to be there.<n id="3" />p>

in Nebuchadnezzar&#8217;s twenty-third year,<n id="1" /> Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, carried into exile 745 Judeans. In all 4,600 people went into exile.p>