v 30 In his twenty-third year, 745 Jews taken into exile by Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard. There were 4,600 people in all.
It is worth remembering that ancient empires were as keen on keeping statistics as are our modern Civil Servants! The number of people marched away into captivity was significant – it was the size of a reasonable city on the move. Add to that, Nebuzaradan would not have been too keen to lose many of them on the way. These Jews were needed as slaves and builders in the Capital. After all, the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built by Nebuchadnezzar around this time, so slave labour would have been much in demand. They were valuable for the local economy. The more perceptive Jews might have noted the similarity of their situation with that of the Hebrews living under the Pharaohs in Egypt – and perhaps hoped for a similar miraculous escape.
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