“These nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate forever. I will bring on that land all the things I have spoken against it, all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.” (Jeremiah 25:11-14)
That is not all. A dual fulfilment aspect to the prophecy had Babylon's duration as described, but also had Jerusalem lying desolate for a concurrent 70 years. Now, the two predictions were offset from each other because Babylon's start was 608 BC, whereas the siege of Jerusalem started in December 589 BC. So, there are actually two counts of seventy, the second count lasting until 520 BC when Darius endorsed a decree to commence the rebuilding of the temple.
His decree was made Oct/Nov 520 BC, and on December 18th, Haggai marked it as the end of Jerusalem's punishment.
"The vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing, but from this day on I will bless you.” (Haggai 2:19)
Counting time in the Bible is inclusive. If the 1st year only consists of a few months before the next New Year, it is still deemed to be the 1st year. Likewise, the last year is a ‘year.’ In other words, part-years are always treated as full years when reckoned on the old Hebrew calendar, and this is demonstrated on numerous occasions throughout the Bible. Such is the case here and it is indeed seventy years.
One of the reasons ‘Jeremiahs 70 years’ is not often quoted as an accurate example of predictive prophecy is because its details are spread over 4 or 5 different references and historical events. In the following diagram I have bought them together so that its extraordinary accuracy can be appreciated.
Ged
