The prophecies of Babylon’s fall have been a subject of debate amongst Christians for hundreds of years if not more.
The Bible described that the Israelites would be in “exile” or “captivity” for 70 years under Babylon, but would then be freed when Babylon fell, and described the exact minute details of its fall.
- “This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares YHWH, making the land an everlasting waste. For thus says YHWH: When seventy years are completed for/at(?) Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place“ – Jeremiah 25:11-12, Jeremiah 29:10
There have been many dates and interpretations suggested for when the Jewish exile began (whether that be from the start of Jerusalem’s destruction, or another starting point), and the same can be said for the fall of Babylon…
In this article, I’m not going to go into the details of the prophecy’s fulfilment (such as the manner Babylon was attacked, etc), that would be a subject for another article in regards to showcasing the prophetic power of the holy scriptures… No, instead I’m going to be sharing my personal Biblical calculations and reasoning on when I think the Jewish exile began, when Jerusalem was destroyed, and when Babylon truly fell.
To begin, we’re going to look at secular references before looking into the internal math and chronology of the Bible.
According to mainstream historians, Babylon was said to be destroyed in the year “539 B.C.E”. According to the scriptures, Babylon’s end marks the end of the 70 years of captivity.
Thus counting backwards 70 years from that we get to 609 B.C. Thus based in this logic, we learn that the 70 years under Babylon began in 609 B.C.
Some believe however that the “70 years of Babylonian rule” also correlates with a “70 year Jewish exile”, in which case this seemingly means the Jewish exile began for no reason 22 years before Jerusalem was ever attacked, and well before it completely fell to Babylon in 587 B.C.
If the idea of a Jewish 70 year exile in correlation to the 70 years of Babylon is a correct interpretation then there are some issues with these secular dates based in scripture, and it would suggest 598-528 B.C.E as the true fulfilment of this prophecy as opposed to 609-539 B.C.E….
Others believe that the 70 years begin from Jerusalem’s destruction in 587 B.C.E, which means the fulfilment is from 587-539 B.C.E, but this is a far shorter length of time to 70 years, and has resulted in some Christians claiming that either the fall of Babylon was far later in history, or that the fall of Jerusalem was in a much earlier year to what all historians claim.
Other Christians would also claim that the Jews were at Babylon for 70 years in exile, even after it had been conquered by Cyrus, meaning the 70 years of Babylon’s rule over the nations and the 70 years of the Jewish exile were two different timelines, which is based on some alternative translations of Jeremiah 29:10, which say; “When seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place“, as opposed to saying “for Babylon”.
Which view is correct?
The Secular History
According to secular historians:
“Jehoiakim was appointed king by Necho II, king of Egypt, in 609 B.C… Jehoiakim ruled originally as a vassal of the Egyptians, paying a heavy tribute. To raise the money he “taxed the land and exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land according to their assessments.” However, after the Egyptians were defeated by the Babylonians at the battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem (in 597/8), and Jehoiakim changed allegiances to avoid the destruction of Jerusalem. He paid tribute from the treasury in Jerusalem, some temple artifacts, and handed over some of the royal family and nobility as hostages…
Jehoiakim continued for three years as a vassal to the Babylonians, until the failure of an invasion of Egypt in 601 BC undermined their control of the area. Jehoiakim switched allegiance back to the Egyptians…. King Jehoiakim refused to pay tribute in Nebuchadnezzar’s fourth year, which led to another siege in Nebuchadnezzar’s seventh year, culminating with the death of Jehoiakim and the exile to Babylonia of King Jehoachin (Jehoakim’s son). Jehoachin’s successor Zedekiah and others were exiled in Nebuchadnezzar’s 18th year; a later deportation occurred in Nebuchadnezzar’s 23rd year. The dates, numbers of deportations, and numbers of deportees given in the biblical accounts vary. These deportations are dated to 597 BCE for the first, with others dated at 587/586 BCE, and 582/581 BCE respectively.
The following table is based on Rainer Albertz’s work on Israel in exile.(Alternative dates are possible.)
609–598 BCE: Reign of Jehoiakim. Began giving tribute to Nebuchadnezzar in 605 BCE. First deportation, purportedly including Daniel.
598/7 BCE: Reign of Jehoiachin (reigned 3 months). Siege and fall of Jerusalem.
Second deportation: 16 March 597/8
Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem in 597 BC, and managed to capture the city and king Jehoiachin,[along with all of the aristocracy of Jerusalem…. Then Nebuchadnezzar exiled 10,000 of the officers, and the craftsmen, and 7,000 soldiers. Then, he appointed Jehoiachin’s uncle, Mattaniah as king of Judah. Later, Mattaniah changed his name to Zedekiah…
In July 587 BC, Zedekiah rebelled against Babylonia, making an alliance with Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem again, starving the people. Later, the Babylonian troops managed to get inside the walls and conquer the city, yet Zedekiah and some of his troops managed to escape to Jericho, where they fought against the Babylonians (called Chaldeans by the Bible), who captured Zedekiah and his sons and brought them in chains to Babylonia, where Zedekiah’s children were executed in front of him. On the seventh of Av, Nebuzaradan, a Babylonian executioner, burned down Solomon’s Temple, destroyed the walls of Jerusalem, and exiled the rest of the Jews to Babylonia. He appointed Gedalia as the administrator of the Jews that weren’t exiled from Judah. Judah ceased to exist a year later, in 586 BC. Gedalia was later murdered in 582 BC”.
The Babylonian Chronicles, which were published by Donald Wiseman in 1956, establish that Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem the first time on March 16, 597 BC. Before Wiseman’s publication, E. R. Thiele had determined from the biblical texts that Nebuchadnezzar’s initial capture of Jerusalem occurred in the spring of 597 BC, but other scholars, including William F. Albright, more frequently dated the event to 598 BC. – Wikipedia (Jehoiakim, Jewish-Babylonian war, Siege of Jerusalem, Babylonian captivity).
Beginning our Calculations
Some believe the exile should be calculated from the destruction of Jerusalem. However, if we calculate the 70 years from when Jerusalem fell to Babylon, counting forward 70 years from 587 B.C.E (the established secular date), we are led to 517 B.C.E. However there lies a scriptural problem… this is not the year stated by Jeremiah to be the end of the 70 years, for he stated Babylon would fall by the time 70 years were over, and secular history tells that it fell in 539 B.C.E, which is much earlier than 517 B.C.E. If the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 was the start date of the exile, and the exile ended in 539, then the exile would have only been 48 years, and not 70 years as foretold.
Some claim that the “fix” to this problem is that we should calculate the end of the 70 year exile by the date of the reconstruction of the Jewish temple in 516 B.C.E, which then leads to the conclusion of the 70 years. However, the reconstruction of the temple is NOT what the Bible says marks the end of the 70 years, but the fall of Babylon, so that is where we must begin.
As mentioned in my introduction, if we go by the premise that 539 B.C.E is the true fall of Babylon, then we must count 70 years back from that point. This leads us to 609 B.C.
We see that in 609 B.C Jehoiakim reigned. We are given detail of a Babylonian oppression and the beginning of Jewish exile during the beginning of a newly enthroned Jewish king in 609 B.C of whom gave into Babylon by exiling citizens and paying tribute to Babylon by 605 B.C.
In this case, one may reason that it’s possible that the 70 years does not begin with “Jerusalem’s destruction” or the “physical exile” of the Jews, but possibly with the establishing of a Jewish king who gives into “Babylon’s oppression” upon Jerusalem and allows its people to be exiled (in part or in whole) as a result. Some time after this event the Jews go into exile for a number of years until being sent back to Jerusalem by King Cyrus when he overtakes Babylon in 539 B.C.E.
However, a possible interpretation of the Bible based upon the reading of 2 Chronicles 36:20 & Zechariah 7:4–5 may state that the Jews were also to be in exile 70 years, which is to be equated with “serving” Babylon.
- He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of YHWH by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years“. – 2 Chronicles 36:20–21
- For thus says YHWH: When seventy years are completed for/at(?) Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place“. – Jeremiah 29:10
- “Then the word of the YHWH of hosts came to me: ‘Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?'” – Zechariah 7:4–5
If this is the case then we can say there may be “two timelines”, 70 years of exile, and 70 years of Babylon….
We must remember however that the if Bible says “for Babylon” at Jeremiah 29:10, it means that when Babylon falls, the Jews would be returned to Jerusalem… In this case, ‘if’ the Bible does teach that the Jews would be exiled for 70 years, then that can only mean the “70 years of Babylon” and the “70 years of Jewish exile” are the same event… and if so, 609-539 doesn’t quite hold up when we begin to examine Ezekiel:
- “In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, in the start of the year, on the tenth [day] of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city had been struck down, on this very same day the hand of YHWH proved to be upon me, so that he brought me to that place. . .” – Ezekiel 40:1
If the beginning of Babylon’s 70 years is also said to be the same 70 years the Jews were to be in exile based upon 2 Chronicles 36:20, Zechariah 7:4–5 and Jeremiah 29:10, then the 70 years of Babylon begin with the Jewish exile, which according to the above cited scripture is ‘before’ Jerusalem is destroyed.
In Ezekiel we are told that the 25th year of exile is the 14th year after the city of Jerusalem was struck down, thus, this is telling us that the exile, and in turn the 70 years, could not have began in 609 B.C… for 25 years back in time from 573 BCE (which is the year we get by taking the 14 years from 587 B.C; the established date of Jerusalem’s destruction) is 598 B.C.E, which points to the FIRST siege of Jerusalem, Jehoiakim’s death and the establishment of Jehoiachin, and NOT 609 B.C, nor the second siege under King Jehoiachin during 488/9 B.C.E, nor the third siege which was destruction of Jerusalem, which is said to happen later during the rule of King Zedekiah in 587 B.C.E.
‘If’ the 70 years of Babylon are intrinsically tied to the Jewish exile, then this could be said to make perfect sense, because it is when Israel was brought into Babylonian service by force, as opposed to by choice or circumstantial alliance (as it was in earlier years under Jehoiakim by 605 BCE), and it is also when historical and Biblical records show that Jews began to be exiled in mass from their land. However, if the Jewish exile is to also be 70 years and began in 598 B.C.E, 70 years from this date leads to 528 B.C.E, which would imply Babylon fell in 528 B.C.E and NOT in 539 B.C.E…
But if the fall of Babylon is in secularism said to be in for a certainty in 539 B.C.E… that means the exile was from 598 B.C.E to 539 B.C.E, which equals only 59 years… But this does not fulfil Yah’s prophecy of a possible 70 year Jewish exile, for we are 11 years off of 70 (Jeremiah 25:12, Jeremiah 29:10).
However, if the secular date of Babylon’s end is correct, we “might” try and say it’s possible that the date of Jerusalem’s fall may be incorrect secularly…. In this case, to keep the date of 539 B.C.E for Babylon’s fall, then Jerusalem’s fall would have to be moved by 11 years to make up for the loss to get to 539 B.C.E.
587 B.C.E minus 11 years leads to 598 B.C.E… The problem here is this would mean the destruction of Jerusalem happened during or just after the first siege, not the second, leaving no reason for a second siege and destruction. In addition, that would misplace the king of Babylon’s 19th year of rule as his 7th or 8th year of rule according to 2 Kings and Jeremiah, as Jehoiakim’s death during the first siege happened during Jehoiakim’s 11th year (which would have been Nebuchadnezzar’s 7th):
- “And in the fifth month on the seventh [day] of the month, that is to say, the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the chief of the bodyguard, the servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he proceeded to burn the house of YHWH and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; and the house of every great man he burned with fire. And the walls of Jerusalem, all around, the entire military force of Chaldeans that were with the chief of the bodyguard pulled down”. – 2 Kings 25: 8-10
- “The word that occurred to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, that is, the first year of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon”. – Jeremaiah 25:1
Thus, if we go back 18 years from 598 B.C.E to prevent all these events and timelines piling on top of one another, leading to 616 B.C.E, this means the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule was 616 B.C.E, and that the 4th year of Jehoiakim’s rule was also that year, meaning the first year of Jehoiakim was in 619 B.C.E, and that Nebuchadnezzar’s rule ended in 573 B.C.E… which is all far beyond the dates established in the secular world for these rulers, and in turn off sets numerous other historical and Biblical events and dates in a cascading chain of chronological chaos.
Because of the words of the prophets tying the timeline of the rule of Jewish kings in a fixed place to the Babylonian king’s timeline in relation to the fall of Jerusalem, moving the year of Jerusalem’s fall from 587 B.C causes us to move the years of ‘everything else’ to maintain scriptural harmony, ‘including’ the date for the fall of Babylon.
So, if the Bible does indeed teach a 70 year exile in tandem with the 70 years of Babylon, we have two options to stay true to the Bible’s claims. Either ‘all’ of secular history is far off on ‘all’ of these events including the fall of Babylon by at least 45 years earlier than is recorded in history, whilst several other events go completely out of existence… or, all the dates of the kings, kingdoms and their rulerships stand correct in secular history, and Babylon fell in later 528 B.C.E and not 539 B.C.E…
This idea seems unfeasible at first, as it would seem to contradict established historical chronology either way, and forces us to say that either; the Bible is wrong if the 70 years does indeed refer to the Jewish exile, or, that the 70 years does not refer to the Jewish exile but only Babylon’s dominance…
However, I have found that through secular sources, that the date of 528 B.C.E being the end of the 70 years in support of a 70 year Jewish exile is possibly still prophetically and historically correct for this interpretation, despite the fact that Cyrus took Babylon in 539…
I have come to understand that Cyrus merely may have “set up the beginning” of Babylon’s fall in 539, but that it may not have come into complete fruition until 11 years later, various historians and historical sources state thus:
“After conquering Babylon, circa 528 BCE the Persian king Cyrus “allowed the Hebrews in [Babylonian] captivity, now referred to as Jews, to return to Jerusalem” (Davis and others [Book 1] 130).” – Cora Agatucci
The Fall of Babylon denotes the end of the Neo-Babylonian Empire after it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in 539 BCE. To the east, the Achaemenid Empire had been growing in strength. In 539 BCE, Cyrus the Great invaded Babylonia, turning it into a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. Likewise, when did the Babylonian Empire begin and end? Fall of Neo-Babylonia. After Nebuchadnezzar II died, the empire began to fall apart once again. In 529 BC, the Persians conquered Babylon and made it part of the Persian Empire”. – Hercules Larrazabal
“After Nebuchadnezzar II died, the empire began to fall apart once again. In 529 BC, the Persians conquered Babylon and made it part of the Persian Empire”. – Inetresource
“In 539 BCE… Cyrus claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and the avenger of Bel-Marduk and portrayed himself as the savior, chosen by Marduk to restore order and justice”. – Smart Encyclopedia
“Leick notes that on Oct. 29, 539 B.C., Babylon fell to Cyrus the Great, the legendary Persian leader. Nabonidus, the last king of independent Babylonia was taken to Iran to live out the rest of his life in exile. Cyrus claims that his troops faced no resistance when he took Babylon in an ancient inscription which is now in the British Museum and called the “Cyrus Cylinder.” Cyrus claimed that “I went as harbinger of peace into Babylon,” Cyrus claimed (translation by Irving Finkel) and that he “I founded my sovereign residence within the palace amid celebration and rejoicing.”
If there was a warm welcome for the Persians it didn’t last. In 528–526 B.C., Babylon and the area around it was hit by a famine that was brought about by the failure of barley crops, said Kristin Kleber, a lecturer at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, in a paper published in 2012 in the journal Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie. The workers “who rebuilt the city wall of Babylon in the years 528–526 B.C. must have felt as though they were in the antechamber of hell,” writes Kleber, noting that ancient texts mention discontent among the Babylonians.
However Babylon would never be independent again. The next millennia would see the city fall under the sway of several different empires, including that of Alexander the Great (who died in Babylon in 323 B.C.), the Seleucids, the Parthians and even the Romans. In the end, it would be “buried under the sands” Leick writes, along with many other ancient Mesopotamian cities”. – Livescience
What we can attest in this case, that if the Jewish exile ‘was’ for 70 years and parallels the 70 years of Babylon, is that the attack of Cyrus may not have been the fall of the Babylonian Empire, but was the initial attack upon the city of Babylon only, the Babylonian kingdom being “handed over and divided” in one night (Daniel 5:26–30) with Cyrus becoming its new king.
The true fall of the Empire in this case would have happened by 528 B.C.E, as it truly became part of the Persian Empire as any and all remaining Babylonian resistance and cultural identity was squashed and King Cyrus’ reconstruction efforts of the city began. During this time, keeping with God’s promises in that He said Babylon would not only fall as an Empire, but that its city would never be inhabited, it would seem the bringing of the famine was a key component to ensure that the city would not be rebuilt. It would appear to me that God may have been cursing the land, expelling anyone who remained in the city after it was taken over, disrupting the Persian attempts at the repairs of its walls, and from then, it was truly never inhabited ever again, but was merely a pile of ruins being squabbled over by various powers over the ages with nothing really coming of it:
- “She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; there no nomads will pitch their tents, there no shepherds will rest their flocks”. – Isaiah 13:20.
Thus we see that ‘if’ the interpretation of a 70 year Jewish exile is correct, then 528 B.C.E is Babylon’s “true” prophetic end, which can harmonise with both scripture and secular history, in this case, the 70 years spans from 598-528 B.C.E.
Israel is oppressed by Babylon and forced into servitude in 598, Jerusalem is destroyed in 587, Cyrus attacks Babylon and becomes its king in 539, then by 528 the Persian take over and assimilation comes into full fruition, only to then end in disaster as God, keeping true to his word, strikes the land with famine, preventing its walls from being rebuilt, the city falling to the sands of time….
Of course, it is also just as possible that the Bible doesn’t teach a 70 year Jewish exile at all, and the 70 years refers ‘only’ to the domination of Babylon over Jerusalem and the nations, and therefore the length of the exile is unprecedented, meaning that the interpretation into 2 Chronicles 36:20 & Zechariah 7:4–5 is mistaken.
A line of evidence for this lies in Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezra:
- “‘But when 70 years have been fulfilled, I will call to account the king of Babylon and that nation for their error,’ declares YHWH, ‘and I will make the land of the Chal·deʹans a desolate wasteland for all time.” – Jeremiah 25:12
- “This is the interpretation of the words: MEʹNE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. “TEʹKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found lacking. “PEʹRES, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.” Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple and placed a gold necklace around his neck; and they heralded concerning him that he was to become the third ruler in the kingdom. That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed“. – Daniel 5:26–30
- “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of YHWH spoken through Jeremiah, YHWH stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows: ‘This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘YHWH, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever among you belongs to His people, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of YHWH, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let every survivor, wherever he lives, be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.’ So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and rebuild the house of YHWH in Jerusalem“. – Ezra 1:1-5
This “king of Babylon” in Jeremiah ‘could’ be argued to be Cyrus, as he declares himself to be king of Babylon after he takes over in 539, and then dies just after during the time of famine, with the city never being rebuilt, the “land of the Chaldeans being desolated” as Cyrus is brought into account, and the Jews released…
However, Daniel gives us strong evidence in that the king being spoken of is Belzhazzar, who was killed by Cyrus, along with Ezra also telling us that the first year of Cyrus’s rule over Babylon, he allows the Jews to go home. Therefore, to maintain prophetic consistency we would have to say that the 70 years apply to Babylon only and has nothing to do with the length of the Jewish exile, in which case, there is nothing wrong with asserting 609-539 B.C.E.
It is important to consider, however, the earlier point raised near the beginning of this article, that if the 70 years mentioned in Jeremiah 29 of being “at Babylon” are a separate 70 years to the rulership of Babylon over Jerusalem and the nations, it would mean their exile began in 598 B.C.E, leading to their return by 528 B.C.E, whilst the 70 years of Babylonian rulership could still be from 609-539 B.C.E of which all the cited secular historical evidence above would also seem to perfectly coincide with on both accounts, and wouldn’t contradict any historical evidence whatsoever.
But it may also be possible that the historians claiming the Jews returned to their homeland by Cyrus’ decree by 528 B.C.E, may in fact be a misquote, or confusion on their part, and it may in fact be ‘538’ B.C.E the Jews returned to Jerusalem, which just so happens to be one year’s reign of Cyrus over Babylon after he took over in 539 B.C.E. In which case, the 70 years would have to refer exclusively to Nebuchadnezzar’s rulership, and the translation; “for Babylon” in Jeremiah 29, would be the accurate one.
Proselyte of Yah 