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Overview and Map of The Babylonian Captivity in 586 BC as recorded in the Old Testament during the period of the Kings of Judah. The events took place in the 6th century BC. Map Included.
IntroductionOne of the events that is well known to students of the Bible is that of the “Babylonian captivity”. The basic points about that event are as follows: First, the Babylonian empire defeated Judah in the late 7th century BC – i.e., close to 601 BC. The majority of the Jewish people were eventually exiled to Babylon – and were kept in captivity there for a number of decades.
After that, Babylon itself was conquered by Medeo-Persia; and the Persian king Cyrus subsequently allowed the Jews to return to Judah.The above “basic points” are not in dispute; they are widely agreed upon by almost everyone – even by secular historians. However, in addition to the above general ideas, there are some very specific items about the Babylonian captivity that are accepted by Bible students. The following two items, in particular, are accepted by most believers:– The duration of the Babylonian captivity was precisely 70 years;– The reason for that captivity is that the Israelites had failed to observe 70 Sabbath years.In other words, the Israelites were kept in captivity in Babylon for 70 years, in order to “atone” for the 70 Sabbath years that they had failed to observe.The above specific points are somewhat difficult to “reconcile” in Scripture, however. In other words, in some cases, it appears that Scripture contradicts itself, about the above points.Of course, unbelievers are always looking for any opportunity to discredit Scripture. As a result, it is quite important for believers to be able to demonstrate that Scripture actually does not contradict itself.So, let’s examine the information in Scripture, about the Sabbath year and about the Babylonian captivity, to determine if the above points are actually verified by Scripture.The Sabbath YearFirst of all, it is necessary to discuss the concept of the “Sabbath year”. Many people are familiar with the Sabbath day– that is, the commandment that the 7th day of the week is a day of rest.It turns out that there is alsoa commandment that every 7th yearis a “year of rest”. In this case, the land, itself, will be given “rest” – in that no crops may be planted or harvested during a Sabbath year.
Here is the relevant passage, which states that the land must rest on the Sabbath year:Leviticus 25:1-5 (ESV):1 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine.
It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.The Year of JubileeAnother special year in Scripture is called the “Year of Jubilee”. Scripture states that every 50th year is a Year of Jubilee. There are several important events that take place in a Jubilee year – and one such event is that the land must rest on Jubilee years – just as it does on Sabbath years.The following passage contains the command for the land to rest, on the Year of Jubilee:Leviticus 25:8-11 (ESV):8 “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.
10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. On 26 Oct 2015 at 7:06 pm JasBrianEz 4 is about how long they will be punished not how long they did wrong.
390 years for The Tribes of The North and 40 years for the Tribes of the South, a day to equal a year and in no way can be added together Also there is a seven times punishment of Lev 26.Jeremiah states plainly this punishment was for these things and if they stopped he would punish them. Never mentions the Sabbaths so were did this 2nd temple historian get that Jeremiah stated that.” But you would not listen. 25:4 Over and over again 7 the Lord has sent 8 his servants the prophets to you. But you have not listened or paid attention.
9 25:5 He said through them, 10 ‘Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and stop doing the evil things you are doing. 11 If you do, I will allow you to continue to live here in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors as a lasting possession. 12 25:6 Do not pay allegiance to 13 other gods and worship and serve them. Do not make me angry by the things that you do. 14 Then I will not cause you any harm.’ 25:7 So, now the Lord says, 15 ‘You have not listened to me.
But 16 you have made me angry by the things that you have done. 17 Thus you have brought harm on yourselves.’.
by John P. PrattReprinted from The Ensign28, No. 10 (October, 1998), pp. 64-65.
©1998 by Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
All rights Reserved.
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Jeremiah prophesied that Judah's captivity in Babylon would last 70 years, and thescriptures testify that his prophecy was fulfilled. Many people have wondered just exactly howthose years were to be counted because an oft-used method yields less than 60 years. Acareful calculation, however, using Jewish reckoning from the taking of the first captives doesindeed show that it lasted 70 years.
Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah), king of Judah, was captured by King Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon, along with some 10,000 of Jerusalem's principal citizens (see 2 Kgs. 24:12-16).After they arrived in Babylon, the prophet Jeremiah wrote them a letter telling them to buildhouses and plant gardens. He prophesied, 'For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years beaccomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing youto return to this place' (Jer. 29:10).
The exact day on which Jehoiachin was taken captive is given in the Babylonian Chronicles,which is a short synopsis on clay tablets of what occurred in each year of the Babylonian kings. Speaking of Nebuchadnezzar in his seventh year,[1] the chronicles state, 'He encamped against the city of Judah and on the second day of the month Adar he capturedthe city (and) seized (its) king. A king of his own choice he appointed in the city (and) taking the vast tribute he brought it to Babylon.'[2]
The king of his choice was Zedekiah (see 2 Kgs 24:17). The date mentioned corresponds to Saturday,10 March 597 B.C., on our calendar.[3] The years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign are firmly establishedby Babylonian astronomical observations, giving absolute anchor dates, which confirm theyears already accepted from historical sources. In this case, theBible is also a witness to the exact day because it records that he was taken as the year waschanging (see 2 Chr. 36:10). On the Judean calendar, that same day would be called 1 Nisan,the first day of the year usually used for reckoning the reigns of kings. Thus, the witnesses of twocalendars from two nations agree to the very day.
The Bible makes it clear that the 70 years were fulfilled when the Jews returned toJerusalem in the first year of Cyrus of Persia (see 2 Chr. 36:22-23, Ezra 1:1-4). Cyrus conqueredBabylon, and then, in the very first year of his reign, he decreed that the Jews could return toJerusalem to rebuild their temple. This fulfilled not only Jeremiah's prophecy, but also Isaiah's: 'Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thoushalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid' (Isa. 44:28). On page 640 of the LDSBible Dictionary under 'Chronology,' we find 537 B.C. listed for the year of the decree. Thisappears to be correct.[4] The problem arises when we notice that thereare only 60, rather than the prophesied 70, years between 597 B.C., when Jeconiah was taken, and 537 B.C. So how is this apparent discrepancy resolved?
![Middle Middle](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126339056/820699424.jpg)
The solution to the problem is given to us by Daniel. He tells us that he andothers were taken captive some years before Jehoiachin.He states that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem in the third year of Jehoiakim (father ofJehoiachin), and that he, Daniel, was taken captive at that time (Dan. 1:1-3, 6). This account meansthat Nebuchadnezzar had taken captives even before he was crowned king. Further, Daniel's account is verified in the history of Nebuchadnezzar by Berossus of Babylon. This Babylonian history, no longer extant, is quoted by Josephus as stating that afterNebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt at Carchemish in Syria (in the spring of 605 B.C.), heimmediately 'settled the affairs of Egypt, and the other countries' and sent captives from the Jews,Phoenicians, Syrians, and Egyptians to Babylon before he returned there himself (in August) to becrowned king after his father's death.[5]
But the difference between 605 and 537 B.C. is only 68 years. Why, then, does the biblical accountspeak of 70? The answer lies in the calendar systems used and in the way ancient Israelitescalculated their years.
The Israelites used two calendar systems, one beginning in the fall and one beginning in the spring.Their calendar originally began in the fall; however, after the Lord took the children of Israelout of Egypt, a change was made in their reckoning of years so that the first month was in the spring. (see Ex. 12:2, 13:3-4). The reigns of kings were usually calculated with years beginningin the spring, as in the case of Jehoiachin mentioned above. According to the spring reckoning,the battle of Carchemish occurred in the beginning of the fourth year of Jehoiakim (see Jer. 46:2).
The first key to discovering the answer to our question is this: in Daniel's history, he usesthe calendar system whose years start in the fall, not the spring. As Daniel implies,the battle of Carchemish was in the end of the third year of Jehoiakim according tothe fall reckoning (see Dan. 1:1). Daniel's procedure of starting the year's count in the fallwas the same procedure used in counting the sabbatical years for the land, a principle thatwas decreed in the law of Moses (see Lev. 25:3-4; see also Bible Dictionary, s.v. 'calendar'sabbatical year'). As the scriptures declare,the 70-year period of captivity was related to sabbath-year counts (see 2 Chr. 36:21); it madeup for sabbath years on the land that Israel had not observed. This being the case, we seewhy Daniel started to count the 70-year period from a fall reckoning. Daniel's use of fallreckoning for years of captivity makes sense because sabbath years for land were reckonedbeginning in the fall.
The second key is to understand that in Jewish reckoning any part of a year can countas a full year. By this reckoning, then,the year beginning in the fall of the year we designate as 606 B.C. on our calendar systemwould be counted as the first year of the captivity even though the Jews werecaptive only a short period of the year because Daniel was taken before that year had ended on the Jewish calendar in September of 605 B.C.
In this light, the 70th, or ending year, began 69 years later inthe fall of the year we now designate as 537 B.C., during the first year of the reign of Cyrus.The ending point for the 70 years seems to be at the Feast of Tabernacles (see Ezra 3:4), which was celebrated in Jerusalem in the fall only two weeks after the year had begun. That two-week period, however, was enough to extend the captivity into its 70th year,which would end for the Jews in the fall of the year we now designate as 536 B.C.
Counting a small part of the year as a year, then, is the way the Jews would have reckonedthe captivity from 605 B.C. to 537 B.C. as 70 years.
Notes
- That year was his eighth year according to Jewish reckoning (see 2 Kgs 24:12)because the Jews counted the year in which he ascended the throne as the first year, whereas theBabylonians reckoned his reign as beginning the next year, in the spring of 604 B.C.
- A.K. Grayson,Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles , vol. 5 of Texts from Cuneiform Sources, eds. A.L. Oppenheim, and others (1975), 102.
- Adar is the 12th month on both the Babylonian and Jewish calendars,so it was near the end of Nebuchadnezzar's seventh year, which had begun in the spring of 598 B.C.The exact date is taken from the tables of R.A. Parker and W.H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.-A.D. 45 (1942), 25, where 1 Adar is listed as 15 March on the Julian Calendar.
- The other year commonly cited is 538 B.C., but that appears to be one year too early.
- Antiquities 10.11.1, trans. W. Whiston, The Complete Works of Josephus (1981), 224-5.
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