⁶² Though you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, few of you will be left because you would not listen to the Lord your God.

²² When your ancestors went down into Egypt, there were only seventy of them. But now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky!

²⁷ For the Lord will scatter you among the nations, where only a few of you will survive.

²⁷ And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,

²⁹ And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:

²⁰ In fact, unless the Lord shortens that time of calamity, not a single person will survive. But for the sake of his chosen ones he has shortened those days.

² Jeremiah the prophet. They said, “Please pray to the Lord your God for us. As you can see, we are only a tiny remnant compared to what we were before.

Nehemiah Registers the People

⁴ At that time the city was large and spacious, but the population was small, and none of the houses had been rebuilt.

¹⁴ King Nebuchadnezzar took all of Jerusalem captive, including all the commanders and the best of the soldiers, craftsmen, and artisans—10,000 in all. Only the poorest people were left in the land.

²⁸ The number of captives taken to Babylon in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign^[a] was 3,023. ²⁹ Then in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year^[b] he took 832 more. ³⁰ In Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year^[c] he sent Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who took 745 more—a total of 4,600 captives in all.