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Prophecy

The seventy years of Babylonian rule (Jeremiah)

The Jews mourning in exile in Babylon, artist’s impression by Eduard Bendemann (1832, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne).
Artist’s impression The Jews mourning in exile in Babylon, artist’s impression by Eduard Bendemann (1832, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne). — Eduard Bendemann, Wikimedia Commons · Domaine public

◐ Written shortly before or at the time: it cannot be decided

Written c. 605–594 BC according to tradition; c. 594–520 BC according to historians. Event: 609–539 BC.

See the full entry: sources, objections, answers

In short

The announcement. The prophet Jeremiah, in the book of Jeremiah, around 605–594 BC, announces that Babylon will rule over Judah and its neighbors for seventy years, then that it will be punished in turn.

What happened. Babylon rules the region from 609 or 605 BC and takes Jerusalem in 597. Its empire falls in 539 BC, 66 to 70 years later depending on the starting point chosen.

What is still debated. seventy is a common round number for a long period, and the count only works out by choosing the start and end dates after the fact.

What would be striking if the text came first

Predicting an empire’s victory was within reach of an observer; announcing its end, and roughly when, much less so. The dates come from Babylonian tablets. The passage may, however, have been reworked after 539; this cannot be settled.

Main objection (in French for now)

70 est un chiffre conventionnel pour une vie humaine ou une longue punition (Ps 90:10 ; Es 23:15). Une inscription d’Assarhaddon parle elle aussi d’un décret de 70 ans de désolation de Babylone.

The text (World English Bible)

This whole land will be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. “It will happen, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,” says the LORD, “for their iniquity. I will make the land of the Chaldeans desolate forever.

Jer 25:11-12

Sources