Jeremiah 25:1

JEREMIAH 25

PROPHECY OF THE SEVENTY YEARS OF CAPTIVITY

This remarkable chapter records the prophecy of Jeremiah which came at the end of twenty-three years of his ministry, during which he had continuously pleaded with Judah for their repentance and whole-hearted return unto the worship of their true God. Judah never heeded him.

The message here was stark and terrible. Judah's day of grace had expired; the longsuffering mercy of God could no longer postpone the deserved judgment of the rebellious nation; the calamity stored up for the Chosen People could no longer be averted or postponed; the time of judgment was at hand!

The chapter falls into three divisions: (1) The judgment of Judah and the eventual doom of Babylon (Jeremiah 25:1-14), (2) the cup of God's wrath upon the nations (Jeremiah 25:15-29), and (3) the judgment of the whole world (Jeremiah 25:30-38).

In the first division, we have the sensational prophecy that the captivity of Israel would last seventy years. This amazing prophecy foretold the exact duration of the Babylonian exile; and, "There was no possible way for Jeremiah to have known a thing like that except by the direct revelation of Almighty God."[1]

We are aware of the glib manner in which many present day scholars speak of this prophecy of seventy years being a "round number," not meaning seventy years at all, but "a very long time." But such comments are worthless, being only the best that unbelievers can come up with in the form of denial. As Keil noted, "The term of seventy years mentioned is not a so-called `round number,' but a chronologically exact prediction of the Chaldean supremacy over Judah."[2] Oh yes, we are aware that an exact calculation of the "seventy years" embraces the time from the battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C. to the 1st year of Cyrus, some sixty-seven years; but the additional three years were required for the establishment of the first wave of returnees; and besides that, as Dummelow pointed out, "The Jews, because of their love of round numbers, would have considered the number seventy here as standing for any approximation of that number."[3]

However, Keil pointed out that, "The captivity should be reckoned from the first year of Jehoiachim (606 B.C.), till the first year of the sole supremacy of Cyrus over Babylon (536 B.C.), a period of exactly seventy years, this number being confirmed by the dates given by both profane and Scriptural historians."[4] Many commentators miss the point here, namely, that the "captivity" should be dated from the first year of Jehoiachim, not the third or fourth year. With the first day of the accession of Jehoiachim, Judah was no longer an independent nation.

We find no fault whatever with Keil's calculations; and, additionally, the sacred Scriptures themselves refer to this prophecy as having an "exact fulfillment." 2 Chronicles 36:20-23 states that God required Israel's captivity to last seventy years in order that the violation of the divine requirement that the land should enjoy a sabbath every seven years might be confirmed and "made up" by Israel. In the 490 year time period between the accession of king Saul and the Babylonian captivity, Israel did not observe the commanded sabbaths for the land. The inspired writer of 2Chronicles stated categorically that the captivity lasted seventy years, "Until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths: for as long as it lay desolate, it kept sabbaths, to fulfill the threescore and ten years" (2 Chronicles 36:21). Too bad they had never heard of all those round numbers! One year out of every seven for 490 years equals exactly "seventy years."

Also, notice in this connection that Daniel the prophet (Daniel 9:2), in the first year of the Median king Darius, took note of the seventy years which God, according to the prophet Jeremiah, would accomplish for the desolation of Jerusalem. "Furthermore, Daniel's seventy prophetic weeks are based upon the seventy years of the captivity (Daniel 9:2,24)."[5]

For all of these valid reasons, we reject as worthless the speculations that would rob this remarkable prophecy of its specific meaning. We are aware that "many current scholars" agree that the prophecy means only "a very long time"; but, it is a foregone certainty that when "many scholars" agree on some such an interpretation, only one of them is doing any thinking, and the rest are merely going along with the crowd. It is also probable that in such a concurrence of denial, there may not be very many believers.

Jeremiah 25:1-3

"The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiachim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (the same was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon), which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even unto this day, these three and twenty years, the word of Jehovah hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising up early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened."

"The fourth year of Jehoiachim ..." (Jeremiah 25:1). Daniel gives this date as "the third year of Jehoiachim" (Jeremiah 1:1); but this is not a conflict. "There were two methods of reckoning `the year' of kings of the Near East during that period, as proved by archeology."[6] The year of accession to the throne was not counted in one of the methods. (See my discussion of this "alleged contradiction" in Vol. 4 of the Major Prophets Series of my commentaries, pp. 17,18.) By the Babylonian method of calculating, it was the third year of Jehoiachim, and this reckoning was followed by Daniel. The Jewish calculation gave the year as the fourth of Jehoiachim. Both statements are correct.

The duration of twenty-three years up to this point in Jeremiah's ministry was made up of nineteen years of the reign of Josiah and four years of the reign of Jehoiachim, including the three-months reign of Jehoahaz.