This entire land will be a place of ruins and an object of horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. “Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,” declares the Lord, “for their wrongdoing, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.” … For this is what the Lord says: “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.” [Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10 (NASB)]

The timelines in most Bibles indicate that the first captives were taken to Babylon in 605 BC and the first exiles returned to Judah in 538 BC. No matter how you figure it, the years don’t quite match Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years. Is “close” good enough for God or does He round up? If we are to trust Biblical prophecy, it should be accurate, and this apparent discrepancy is troubling.

First, we must determine exactly what Jeremiah prophesied would last seventy years. Thanks to a variety of theologians far wiser than I, my research led me to see three different overlapping seventy-year prophecies in Jeremiah’s words!

The first prophecy was that Judah and the surrounding nations would serve Babylon for seventy years. The original Hebrew was abad, meaning to work, serve, or labor for. Jeremiah 25:12 refers to seventy years being completed for Babylon rather than in Babylon. The Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire became the most powerful state in the ancient world in 609 BC when they defeated the Assyrian king Ashur-uballit II. For the next seventy years, all of the nations served them until Babylon was conquered by Persia in in 539 BC. The Babylonian kingdom could not withstand God’s promised judgment and, as prophesied by Jeremiah, it fell seventy years after it ascended.

The second of Jeremiah’s prophecies may have been about the Temple. In 25:11, he prophesied that the land would become a chorbah (meaning a ruin or desolation) and a shammah (meaning waste or horror). While I’d interpreted this to mean untended fields, the Babylonians left the poor and uneducated Jews behind to tend to the land. Rather than the fields, the prophet may have been referring to the ruins of Jerusalem and its demolished Temple. Indeed, the city of Jerusalem was desolate and “an object of horror” after the Temple’s destruction in 586 BC. In 516, exactly seventy years after its destruction, the second Temple was restored and there was feasting and celebration at its dedication. The city had returned to life and the second of Jeremiah’s prophecies was fulfilled.

Nevertheless, Jeremiah’s mention of bringing the people back in 29:10 certainly implies deportation. If the third overlapping prophecy is about the exile, how do we reconcile the dates? Let’s start with what we know for sure! The exile began in 605 BC when Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne. The Babylonian army besieged Jerusalem for the first time and returned to Babylon with Temple gold and the first of the exiles. We also know that Persia’s Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jews to return to Judah in 538 BC.

What we don’t know is what part of the year Cyrus’ proclamation was made, how long preparations took, the date the Jews departed, or when they arrived in Jerusalem. We can, however, make an educated guess! If the proclamation was made toward the end of 538, preparations for departure may not have started until sometime the following year. The Jews weren’t slaves in Babylon—they’d integrated into the economy and many had prospered. Except for the oldest exiles, Babylon was the only home they knew and a decision to resettle in Judah would not have been made quickly or easily. Those who decided to return had homes to sell, businesses to liquidate, possessions to pack, and livestock and provisions to gather. Along with everything else they packed, the exiles brought at least 61,000 gold coins, 6,250 pounds of silver, and 100 robes for the priests. Ezra tells us that Cyrus returned 5,400 articles of gold and silver taken from the Temple; cataloguing and carefully packing those items certainly took time. The exiles’ caravan consisted of 42,360 Judeans, 7,337 servants, and 200 singers (for a grand total of 49,897 people). There were 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys. Regardless of when the proclamation was made, it’s not unreasonable to think that organizing and preparing for their departure may have lasted the better part of a year or more, bringing the departure date well into late 537 or early to mid 536.

The distance from Babylon to Jerusalem is over 500 miles as the crow flies; the exiles, however, weren’t crows and their route was about 900 miles. 80 years later, it took Ezra four months to make that journey (with fewer people, livestock, and supplies) so it probably took this first group at least that long (and probably longer) which easily pushes the timeline for their arrival well into 536! Even though Cyrus’ proclamation was made in 538, the Jewish exile didn’t end until that first group set foot back in Jerusalem which probably was in 536. In ancient times, any part of a year counted as a year and, counting inclusively from 605 to 536, that’s seventy years!

It seems that Jeremiah made three overlapping but equally accurate seventy-year prophecies. The first dealt with Babylon’s seventy years of power, the second was about the Temple’s seventy years of desolation and ruin, and the third concerned the Judean exiles’ years away from Jerusalem. As it turns out, “close” isn’t good enough for God and He doesn’t round His numbers! Jeremiah’s prophecy was right on the money!

He took into exile those who had escaped from the sword to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept the Sabbath until seventy years were complete. [2 Chronicles 36:20-21 (NASB)]

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