Jeremiah's 70 years' prophecy

Jeremiah states that "nations will serve the King of Babylon for 70 years". The next sentence says "then after the 70 years of captivity are over..", which causes a problem regarding the length of Judah's exile. We know that the exile ended in 537 with the decree of Cyrus, but when did the captivity begin? Jerusalem was conquered in 586 BC with all of it's inhabitants but the poorest poor, taken captives by the Babylonians. But if this date is used, the calculation comes to a 48 year captivity. However, the captivity took place in three waves. The first deportation took place in 605 BC when Nebuchudnezzar took the royal family of Jehoiakim along with those of nobility, including Daniel and friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He later reinstated Jehoiakim as a vassal king, but three years later, Jehoiakim refused to pay tribute. His rebellion brought Nebuchudnezzar back to Judah again in 597 BC, taking another group of captives, including the prophet Ezekiel. This is confirmed by extra-Biblical sources as well, as detailed in the following description I read by John Pratt.

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 captured the 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 established by Babylonian astronomical observations, giving absolute anchor dates, which confirm the years already accepted from historical sources. In this case, the Bible is also a witness to the exact day because it records that he was taken as the year was changing (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 two calendars from two nations agree to the very day.

So from the first deportation of Judah's elite in 605 BC to their release in 537 BC, the time span reaches 68 years. This, of course, is still not 70 years. There is a very complicated explanation for this having to do with the Jewish calendar system. I will copy it below for those who care to read through it, but suffice it to say, the remaining two years can be accounted for in this way.

But the difference between 605 and 537 B.C. is only 68 years. Why, then, does the biblical account speak of 70? The answer lies in the calendar systems used and in the way ancient Israelites calculated 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 Israel out 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 beginning in the spirng, 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 uses the 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 to the fall reckoning (see Dan. 1:1). Daniel's procedure of starting the year's count in the fall was the same procedure used in counting the sabbatical years for the land, a principle that was 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 made up for sabbath years on the land that Israel had not observed. This being the case, we see why Daniel started to count the 70-year period from a fall reckoning. Daniel's use of fall reckoning for years of captivity makes sense because sabbath years for land were reckoned beginning in the fall.

The second key is to understand that in Jewish reckoning any part of a year can count as 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 system would be counted as the first year of the captivity even though the Jews were captive 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 in the 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 reckoned the captivity from 605 B.C. to 537 B.C. as 70 years.

Tomorrow's reading:Jeremiah 25:15-36:32, 45:1-5, 46:1-28