Fall of Jerusalem

He said it would happen, and it finally did. King Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchudnezzar and the Babylonians came into the city and ransacked it. The rest of the population was carried into exile, except for the poorest people who were left behind to care for the fields.With all the nations that Babylon was conquering at the time, they had to be selective in how many slaves they brought into their country, lest they begin to cause a drain on their own economy. Jeremiah was given the choice to go to Babylon, where the living was evidently pretty easy, or to stay with his people in his desolate land. He chose to stay in Judah, and wrote the book of Lamentations in bereavement over what had become of his nation.

I noticed that two different dates were given for the fall of Jerusalem in 2 Kings and Jeremiah. They only differ by 3 days, but that's enough to make me google it! Surprisingly, there is little to be found. The best I can explain by what I read on one site, (for which I can't even vouch for it's credibility), is that Jeremiah and 2 Kings use different calendar reckonings. Our modern calendar did not exist and separate calendars were used to indicate reigns of Kings and dates of events.

Jeremiah (along with Zechariah, Haggai and Ezekiel) reckoned regnal years by the accession-year system and sacred calendar years running Nisan-Adar while Daniel (along with Ezra, Nehemiah and the chronicler of Second Kings) reckoned regnal years by the accession-year system and civil calendar years running Tishri-Elul.

Tomorrow's reading: Lam. 2-4:22