Hello, I'm Gary Stevens, and welcome to the History in the Bible podcast.

All the history, in all the books, in all the Bibles.

Episode. Episode 1.56. Modern debates into exile.

In episode 1.54, I left the Judeans marching to Babylon.

How many marched and how many stayed behind?

This is a point of major contention in contemporary biblical studies.

The Bible says that there were either two or three deportations.

First, after the initial capture of Jerusalem in 597 BC.

Second, after the destruction of the city in 586 BC.

And finally, a bonus deportation five years later, well into Babylonian rule.

The books of Kings and Jeremiah provide figures and dates for the deportations, but they don't agree.

In the first deportation, one verse in Kings tells us that 10,000 were deported.

In another verse, it tells us that 7,000 were taken.

For the second expulsion, the book vaguely says, quote, 2 Kings 2511, the remnant of the people that was left in the city,

the defectors who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the remnant of the population,

were taken into exile by Nebu Zaradhan, the chief of the guards, But some of the poorest in the land were left by the

chief of the guards, to be vine-dresses and field hands. End quote. I've looked up several authorities

on how to pronounce that name. Nebizar adorn, Nebizar adan, Nebuzar adan, please yourself.

Following the Masoretic text, the Jewish Study Bible has translated his title as Chief of the Guards.

In the Septuagint, that work translates it as chief cook. Okay. Kings also says

that most of the remaining population fled to Egypt after the assassination of the first

Babylonian governor. The book of Jeremiah quotes precisely 3,846 people taken in the first two deportations,

...