Albert Barnes Commentary Jeremiah 52:28

"This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty;" — Jeremiah 52:28 (ASV)

Seventh year - The suggestion is now generally received that the word "ten" has dropped out before "seven," and that the deportations mentioned here are all connected with the final war against Zedekiah. The calculation of Nebuchadnezzar's reign is different from that used elsewhere, showing that the writer had access to a document not known to the compiler of the Book of Kings. In each date, there is a difference of one year. The Septuagint omits Jeremiah 52:28-30.

The number of the exiles carried away is small compared with the 42,360 men who returned (Ezra 2:64–65), leaving a large Jewish population behind at Babylon. But a continual drain of people from Judea was going on, and the 10,000 carried away with Jehoiachin formed the nucleus and center, and gave tone to the whole (see 2 Kings 24:14). When they began to thrive in Babylon, large numbers would emigrate there of their own accord.

A comparison of this chapter with the parallel portion of 2 Kings shows that, though not free from clerical errors and mistakes of copyists, the body of the text is remarkably sound. Many of the differences between the two texts are abbreviations made purposely by the compiler of the Book of Kings; others are the result of negligence. On the whole, the text of the Book of Kings is inferior to that of the Appendix to the Book of Jeremiah.

Bearing in mind, however, that they are possibly not two transcripts of the same text but the result of an independent use by two different writers of the same original authority, their complete agreement—except in trivial matters and mistakes easily corrected—is a satisfactory proof of the general trustworthiness of the Masoretic Text in all more important particulars.