Jeremiah 52:29
In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons: In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons:
In Nebuchadrezzar's eighteenth year he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons. Taken with the surrounding record, the small numbers show that only a remnant survived Jerusalem's destruction and went into captivity, with a nation once numbering millions greatly diminished. The Hebrew word nephesh, translated here as persons, is used for these captives, showing that the word can mean a person rather than a separate kind of being.
The verse belongs to the record of God destroying Jerusalem a few years after warning that the city would stand forever if the people carried no burdens on the Sabbath and would be destroyed if they refused to listen. The captivity it records happened because the people broke the Sabbath, which shows God's condescension in offering them life for listening and obeying about His holy day and shows the sacredness of the Sabbath.
The chapter shows that the daughters of a city form part of the city itself, as with Babylon, Jerusalem and Rabbah, so the mystic Babylon to be thrown down like a millstone cast into the sea embraces all corrupt Christianity, mother and daughters together. After rejecting the announcement that the hour of judgment has come, mystic Babylon is left forever by the Spirit, God's people are called to come out of her, and her destruction immediately follows. The verse stands as part of the record and lesson of Babylon's judgment, fall and consequences, warning cities and people in modern times who forget and defy God that they face judgment, a warning applied to cities including New York and Chicago.