²⁸ This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: ^(A)in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans;

Daniel Taken to Babylon

1 In the third year of ^(A)the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. ² And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of ^(B)the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to ^(C)the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, ^(D)and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. ³ Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, ^(E)his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family^[a] and of ^(F)the nobility,

^12 (A)and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants and his officials and his palace officials. ^(B)The king of Babylon took him prisoner ^(C)in the eighth year of his reign ¹³ and carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord ^(D)and the treasures of the king's house, ^(E)and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, ^(F)which Solomon king of Israel had made, ^(G)as the Lord had foretold. ^14 (H)He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, ^(I)10,000 captives, ^(J)and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained, ^(K)except the poorest people of the land. ^15 (L)And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon. The king's mother, the king's wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶ And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, ^(M)7,000, and the craftsmen and the metal workers, 1,000, all of them strong and fit for war.

² And the Lord sent against him bands of the ^(A)Chaldeans and ^(B)bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, ^(C)according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants the prophets. ³ Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, ^(D)for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done,

²⁰ He ^(A)took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, ^(B)and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia,