Jeremiah 52:24 - Meaning and Application

This is a very sad account.

First, it tells us of the killing of some important men at Riblah, in cold blood, seventy-two in all, according to the reckoning given here and in (2 Kings 25:18-19). Some were taken from the temple, some from the city, some from the court, and most from the country. The details here match that account, except for one point: there it says five were taken from among those near the king, while here it seems to say seven.

Dr. Lightfoot explains it this way: seven were taken from the king’s circle, but two of them, Jeremiah and Ebed-melech, were spared, as we learned earlier. That would leave five who were actually put to death, making the total seventy-two. They were people from different ranks, but all had done wrong in their own ways.

Seraiah, the high priest, is named first. His holy office could not protect him, because he had dishonored that office by his sin. Seraiah the prince was a peaceful man (Jeremiah 51:59), but Seraiah the priest may have been a restless and troublesome man, and that may have brought him under the wrath of the king of Babylon.

The leaders of the people had led the nation into sin, and now they are made special examples of God’s justice.

Second, we see the rest of Judah taken into captivity. See how Judah was carried out of its own land (Jeremiah 52:27). In that way, the land spat them out, just as it had spat out the Canaanites before them, as God had warned it would if they copied their sins and evil practices (Leviticus 18:28).

Here we are given an account of two earlier captivities. One happened in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, the same event called his eighth year in (2 Kings 24:12). The other happened in his eighteenth year, the same event called his nineteenth year in (Jeremiah 52:12). But the numbers here are very small compared with the earlier record in (2 Kings 24:14, 16), where 18,000 were taken captive. Here only 3,023 are said to have been carried away.

That is also much smaller than we might expect for the later captivity, since when the rest of the people were taken away (Jeremiah 52:15), one would expect more than 832 souls. Dr. Lightfoot thinks that, because these accounts are joined to the story of the great men killed at Riblah, all those listed here may have been put to death as rebels.

There is also a third captivity, not mentioned before, in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, four years after Jerusalem was destroyed (Jeremiah 52:30). Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away 745 Jews. It is likely this was revenge for the murder of Gedaliah, the governor appointed after Jerusalem fell, which was another revolt against the king of Babylon. Those taken may have helped Ishmael in that murder, and may not only have been carried away but also put to death for it, though that is uncertain.

If this is the full number of the captives, 4,600 in all (Jeremiah 52:30), we can see how terribly they had been reduced from their former state. Yet we may also wonder how they later became so numerous again. It seems that, as in Egypt at first, so again in Babylon, the Lord made them fruitful in their suffering, and the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied. This people were often remarkable examples of both judgment and mercy.