Jeremiah's seventy years Archives » From Daniel to Revelation

WHEN THE 70 YEARS BEGAN

Jeremiah wrote:

“When seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the LORD” (Jer 25:11, 12, compare Jer 25:1)

The prophecy of Daniel 9 was received “in the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans” (Dan 9:1). In other words, the Medo-Persian Empire already conquered the Chaldean (Babylonian) Empire. God has already “punished” the king of Babylon (Jer 25:11, 12). That means that the 70 years have already come to an end. But when did it begin?

Jerusalem was finally destroyed in BC 586. However, that was not the start of Jeremiah’s 70 years. The 70 years were not the period of Jerusalem’s desolation. The following indicates that the 70 years were the period of Babylonian rule over Judah and the surrounding nations:

“I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon … against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them … these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jer 25:9, 11).

“For thus says the LORD, When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place” (Jer 29:10).

Judah came under the Babylonian heel in 605 BC (Dan 1:1), but Babylon’s ruling of nations actually dates from the overthrow of Assyria a few years earlier. After the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC (to the allied forces of the Medes and Babylonians), the Assyrian king Ashuruballit established his government at Harran. This city fell to the Babylonians in 610 BC, and Assyria was finally obliterated when Ashuruballit failed to recapture it in 609 BC. Seventy years later—in 539 BC—Babylon herself was conquered by Cyrus. It is, therefore, possible to count the seventy years from 609 BC to 539 BC.

UNITY QUESTIONED

Daniel 9 consists of two parts; Daniel’s prayer, and the vision which Daniel received while still praying. Higher criticism does not accept that Daniel 9 forms a unit. According to such scholars, Daniel’s prayer and prophecy do not fit, and the prayer was added later. Their argument goes as follows:

(a) Axiomatically (as a point of departure) they reject the sixth-century origin of the book as a whole. They believe the book was compiled in the second century BC, during the persecution of the Jews by the Greek king Antiochus.

(b) They must, therefore, find a reason for the inclusion of Daniel 9 in the book by a second-century writer. A proposed solution is that the 70 Weeks-prophecy was produced to clarify the meaning of Jeremiah’s 70-years prophecy (Daniel 9:2).

(c) But then, they argue, in his prayer recorded in Daniel 9, Daniel should have asked for such illumination. Since he did not, it does not correspond to the prophecy and must have been added later.

The purpose of this article is to show that Daniel 9 does indeed form a unit.

NO UNCERTAINTY

Firstly, the assumption that the prophecy of the “seventy weeks” is a reinterpretation of Jeremiah’s 70 years should not be accepted because, in the second century BC, there was no uncertainty over the plain words of Jeremiah:

Jeremiah prophesied that the end of the 70 years would coincide with the fall of Babylon (Jer 25:11 ff.). Consistent with this, Cyrus issued a decree in the first year after the fall of Babylon, allowing the Jews to return, and, a few years later, the restoration of the temple was actually underway.

The rebuilding of the temple and the city was completed hundreds of years before the crisis in the second century. In other words, there was no failure in the historical realization of the 70-years prophecy that called for a reinterpretation of its simple sense.

THE LINK

Secondly, if one accepts that the book was written in the sixth century BC, as claimed by the book itself (Dan 9:2), then the link between the prayer and prophecy is clear:

Daniel the prophets We understand why Daniel prayed: Babylon fell the previous year (539 BC; cf. Dan 9:1). Its reign of 70 years (Jer 25:9, 11) has come to an end. The clear meaning of Daniel 9:2 ff. is that Daniel prayed for the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophetic promise to restore Israel.

God gave the prophecy in Daniel 9 through “the man Gabriel.” It is clear from the prophecy (Dan 9:20 ff.) that Gabriel did not interpret or reinterpret Jeremiah’s prophecy of restoration but, through the “seventy weeks”-prophecy, God assured Daniel that Jeremiah’s prophecy was about to be fulfilled.

The link is clear: The prophecy promised what Daniel prayed for.

SIMILAR EXPRESSIONS

Thirdly, various expressions link prayer and prophecy. The prophecy repeats or plays on the sound of various words in the prayer. The two parts of the chapter share certain expressions not found elsewhere in the book.

COVENANT

Covenant with Israel

But, as explained, the most persuasive evidence for the unity of Daniel 9 is the fact that Yahweh’s covenant is the thread that binds both prayer and prophecy together in a single unit:

(1) The exile to Babylon was the penalty for unfaithfulness prescribed by the covenant.

(2) The duration of the exile, namely 70 years, was also determined by the covenant, namely one year of exile for every Sabbath year not observed.

(3) Daniel’s prayer was Israel’s confession of guilt, as required by the covenant for covenant renewal.

(4) Through the prophecy, God promised to renew the covenant.

Tag: Jeremiah’s seventy years

Where do we find the 70 years predicted by Jeremiah in history?