The above quotations are from the New International Version (NIV), the translation of the Bible upon which I relied once I began—in the fifth decade of my life—to take the Bible seriously. I continue to be comfortable with it because it is a generally conservative translation and because, as best as I can determine given my lack of training in biblical scholarship, it seems to be generally trustworthy. Except as otherwise indicated, the NIV is the translation upon which I rely in this article. In the case of Daniel 9, however, I have come to have strong reservations about the NIV. As I point out in my recent book on the four kingdoms of Daniel, although it supports a messianic interpretation of the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27, it also supplies a futurist twist to that interpretation whose validity I question. As I point out in this article, the NIV’s translation of Daniel 9:2 is also open to question. That Daniel 9:2 claims that the “desolation” of Jerusalem was to last seventy years can be challenged because (1) the seventy years prophecy given in Jeremiah 25:9-12 and 29:10-13 did not foretell seventy years of desolation for Jerusalem and (2) a plausible alternative translation of Daniel 9:2 removes the claim that it did.

In arguing for these two propositions, I shall be treading in the large exegetical footprints of Carl Olof Jonsson, whose The Gentile Times Reconsidered is a superb work of biblical scholarship. Jonsson was active as a Jehovah’s Witness in his native Sweden for twenty-six years, but his dogged determination to evaluate the biblical claims of the JW authorities for himself ultimately led to his expulsion from that denomination in 1982. The first edition of The Gentile Times appeared in 1983. Subsequent editions have expanded and refined the coverage. Although I do not know precisely where Jonsson stands with respect to preterism, I assure the readers that his book is compatible with preterist exegesis and will be a veritable feast for those interested in a detailed examination of how the Old Testament matches up against the historical record from late in the seventh century BC until around 516 BC. It also offers much exegesis of the New Testament that preterists should find interesting.

Although The Gentile Times focuses upon the repudiation of the claims of the JWs’ Watch Tower Society with respect to interpretations of the Bible grounded, in large part, on passages that allude to the time of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Captivity, the applicability of Jonsson’s analysis is not limited to refuting the claims of the JWs. Jonsson does not, however, directly apply his formidable analytical powers to critical-historical scholarship on Daniel 9:2 and its understanding of the seventy years prophecy of Jeremiah. Accordingly, in this article I lean heavily upon his work to examine the critical-historical; i.e. liberal, treatment of Daniel 9:2.

The seventy years prophecy of Jeremiah 25 begins in verse 8 with the prophet informing the people of Judah that the LORD has said: “I will summon all the peoples of the north, and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon . . . and bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations.” Then, in verses 11-12, Jeremiah reveals this additional detail: “This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and 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 . . . and will make it desolate forever.” Jeremiah 25:1 informs us that this revelation came to Jeremiah “in the first year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.” This information, in combination with Jeremiah 46:2 and secular historical records, allows us to assign a date of 605 BC to the revelation of Jeremiah 25.

Jeremiah 29 informs us that after king Jehoiachin and many other Jews were deported to Babylonia (in 597), Jeremiah sent a letter from Jerusalem to the exiles informing them (v.10) that the LORD had said: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.” In verses 12-13, the LORD tells the exiles that they will call upon Him and seek Him with all their heart; and in verse 14, the LORD promises that “I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you . . . and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

To someone (like me) who comes to the field of biblical scholarship without formal training, there is a natural tendency, I think, to offer a simple and straightforward interpretation of Daniel 9:2. This verse appears to inform us that Daniel understood that the period of seventy years of service to Babylon foretold by Jeremiah either was coming to an end or had already done so. This period included the desolation of Jerusalem that was associated with the exile. Since Daniel 1:1 appears to link the prophet’s exile to the aftermath of the battle of Carchemish, which occurred in 605, and since Babylon fell to the Medes and the Persians in 539, a plausible understanding of Daniel 9:2 would seem to be that it portrays the prophet as believing that the seventy years of Jeremiah had expired. And since the continuation of Daniel 9 in verses 3-19 has the prophet petitioning God to forgive the people of Israel and restore to them the possession of their homeland, I submit that the idea that Daniel 9 portrays Daniel as having any doubt that the time for the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s seventy years prophecy had arrived is not something that would enter the head of an untrained analyst.

Although critical scholars disagree among themselves regarding particulars of the interpretation of Daniel 9:2, their approach to that verse nevertheless exhibits a broad uniformity that differs considerably from the interpretation that I have just put forth. The critics venture into the study of the Book of Daniel under the assumption that Daniel 9 was composed during the reign of Antiochus IV; i.e. in the second century BC, and most of them regard Daniel the prophet of sixth-century BC Babylon as a fictional character. In their view, the Danielic visions (chapters 7-12) were all written with the objective of pointing to the last years of the reign of Antiochus as the climactic moment of Jewish history. The author of Daniel 9 brought in Jeremiah’s seventy years prophecy because he wanted to use it as a lead-in to the seventy sevens prophecy of verses 24-27. The critics often assume that he was uncertain about just when Jeremiah’s prophecy was to be fulfilled. They commonly even go so far as to suggest that his doubts about the fulfillment of the seventy sevens prophecy led him to rework that prophecy into the seventy sevens prophecy of Daniel 9.

A serious problem for those who take a critical or liberal view of the Book of Daniel is that since they generally deny the possibility that Daniel 1:1-2 could be historically accurate about the claim that some Jews were taken from Jerusalem to Babylon at the time indicated; i.e. 605, they have trouble finding a convincing interpretation of Jeremiah’s seventy years prophecy that presents a period of approximately that length for its fulfillment. Of course, even if you believe that Daniel 9 was written ca. 165 BC and that someone invented the prophet Daniel, it would still be possible to credit this fictional prophet with using 605 as the starting point for the running of the seventy years. Not many scholars with a pronounced liberal exegetical bent are willing to do that, however.

Those who favor a second century BC date for the composition of the Danielic visions generally believe that their author was either ill-informed about the history of the time of the Babylonian Captivity or indifferent to historical accuracy, or both. They do this because they are convinced that the Book of Daniel contains numerous historical inaccuracies. Furthermore, when commenting on Daniel 9:2, they tend to downplay the significance of the fact that Jeremiah purportedly received the revelation of Jeremiah 25 in 605, the very year in which Daniel was supposedly exiled. In part, this is because they prefer to avoid calling attention to evidence favoring the idea that some Jews were taken to Babylon in that year. Also, while Jeremiah 25 states that other nations than Judah will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years and does not explicitly mention the exile of Jews to Babylon, Jeremiah 29 focuses upon the exile of the Jews and promises them a return to their homeland.

Although a few “modern scholars”; i.e. liberals, recognize 605 or even a slightly earlier year as a possible starting date for the seventy years prophecy, most of them overwhelmingly favor having the seventy years start running during the years 597 to 586. It was in 597 that the first deportation of Jews to Babylon mentioned in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles occurred (2 Kings 24:14-16, 2 Chron 36:10, see also Jer 29:1-2, 52:27-28), and it was in 587/6 that another deportation occurred after Nebuchadnezzar’s army destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple (2 Kings 24; 2 Chron 36:20; Jer 40:l, 52:27-28).

A frequently expressed idea among “modern scholars”—and even some traditional conservatives—is, as Ernest Lucas insists, that “Jeremiah, no doubt, used the figure [of seventy years] as a round number, indicating a lifetime.” If this is correct, it could be a mistake to seek a precise literal fulfillment of Jeremiah’s seventy years. Even if the seventy years were intended to be strictly figurative, however, prophetic fulfillment requires an end point. Lucas’s list of possible end points consists of “the capture of Babylon by Cyrus in 539, his decree allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem in 538, or the rebuilding of the temple, begun in 520 and completed in 516.” To these possibilities Jonsson adds 537, the year favored by the Watch Tower Society for the beginning of the remnant’s return to Palestine, and 536, the year in which the reconstruction of the Temple began, according to Ezra 3:8-10.

By picking an end point among the years 520 to 516, you can arrive at a “solution” to the seventy years prophecy that allows you to approximate a literal seventy years for its fulfillment with a starting point within the period 597 to 586. An obvious problem with this solution, however, is that Jeremiah’s prophecy does not mention the destruction of the Temple in connection with Judah’s “desolation.” Moreover, when you attempt to apply the seventy years prophecy to Daniel 9:2, you have to confront the facts that Daniel seems there to believe that the time for the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy had already arrived as of 539 and that he refers to the devastation of Jerusalem without alluding to the Temple. It seems clear, therefore, that the author of Daniel 9:2 did not contemplate an end point for the seventy years prophecy as late as the period 520 to 516.

The idea of locating the end point for the seventy years prophecy within the period 520 to 516 comes from Zechariah 1:12 and 7:5, both of which refer to a period of seventy years that is related to the time of the Babylonian Captivity. In Zechariah 1:12, an angel asks: “LORD almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?” Zechariah 7:5 presents the word of the LORD as follows: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?’”

One can readily understand why a casual reader of Zechariah might assume that the seventy years mentioned there are as the same seventy years to which Jeremiah refers. Even distinguished scholars commonly assume that Zechariah intended for them to be the same. Yet, as Carl Olof Jonsson notes, Zechariah does not mention Jeremiah’s prophecy. Moreover, Jonsson persuasively argues that the passages in Zechariah have as their starting point the destruction of the Temple, which he dates to 587, a date that he finds to be considerably later than the date for the beginning point of Jeremiah’s prophecy. Jonsson particularly emphasizes that the date of 518 that can be assigned to Zechariah 7:5 comes remarkably close to precisely seventy years after the date when the Jews began fasting in memory of the destruction of the Temple. An implication of his analysis is that if the seventy years of Zechariah are historically correct, that increases the probability that the seventy years of Jeremiah should be understood not only symbolically in the sense of “indicating a lifetime,” but also literally.

If the end point for Jeremiah’s prophecy from the perspective of the author of Daniel 9:2 is 539 or 538 and a starting point as early as 605 is ruled out by assumption, then it becomes necessary to abandon any notion that the author took the seventy years of Jeremiah to be literal. Most “modern scholars” have found this abandonment to be an easily met challenge. A common suggestion among them is that the second-century BC creator of the visions of Daniel the prophet borrowed from 2 Chronicles 36 the idea that Jeremiah’s prophecy ran from 587/6 to 539/8. Doing this, the argument goes, allowed him to integrate the “round number” argument with the concept of a jubilee period of forty-nine years.

Two Chronicles 36 summarizes the history of Judah and the exiles from the brief reign (three months) of Jehoahaz in 609 until Cyrus issued his decree (probably in 538) authorizing the return of the exiles. Verses 11-19 offer an account of the ill-fated reign of Zedekiah highlighted by the siege and destruction of Jerusalem that occurred after he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 20 states that Nebuchadnezzar then exiled to Babylon the “remnant” who escaped the sword, and verse 21 states that “The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah.”

The language of 2 Chronicles 36:21 referring to sabbath rests comes from Leviticus 26, where, speaking through Moses, the LORD informs the Jews about what will happen to them should they fail to follow His commands. Verse 21 warns: “If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.” Verse 27 repeats the seven times over warning. Verses 31 and 32 warn the Jews that their cities will be destroyed and that they will be scattered among the nations. Next, verses 34 and 35 supply this chilling promise: “Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.”

Although 2 Chronicles 36 does not specifically refer to the jubilee concept, Leviticus 25 most emphatically does. We read in Leviticus 25:8 that “seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years”; and while Leviticus 25:9-10 indicate that the year of jubilee—the year of debt forgiveness and the restoration of land ownership—is the fiftieth year in the sequence, I believe that, in practice, a jubilee period consisted of forty-nine years, and that the number fifty was obtained by making a sabbath year the starting year for the counting of the fifty. In other words, the year of jubilee was the last sabbath year in a sequence that began with the last preceding year of jubilee as year one.

In my judgment, the argument that the author of Daniel 9:2 interpreted Jeremiah’s seventy years as running from 587/6 to 539/8 and that he agreed with the Chronicler’s interpretation of them fails miserably. In the first place, a big problem with trying to make the seventy years of Jeremiah fit into the period 587 to 538 is the fact that the target audience for the version of the prophecy in Jeremiah 29 consisted of those who had been deported to Babylon before 587. This problem helps to explain why Collins takes the position that the author of Daniel did not agree with what he regarded as the Chronicler’s understanding of Jeremiah’s prophecy and sought instead to rework the concept of a jubilee period in the prophecy of the seventy sevens so that the seventy sevens metamorphosed from one period of forty-nine years into ten periods of forty-nine years. In the second place, although critical scholars seem generally to believe that 2 Chronicles 36 equates the seventy years of Jeremiah with the period 587/6 to 539/8, they are in error. The soundest interpretation of 2 Chronicles 36 is that it has Jeremiah’s seventy years running from 605, or even slightly earlier, until 539.

Two Chronicles 36:6 states that Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jehoiakim and “bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.” Although the claim is often made that this passage is factually in error since no other source claims that Jehoiakim was taken to Babylon, it should be noted that the Chronicler does not state that Jehoiakim was actually taken there. This passage should be understood as alluding to a symbolic action designed to demonstrate Jehoiakim’s subservience to Nebuchadnezzar and to indicate what would happen to him should he fail to remain subservient. Jehoiakim actually reigned in Judah from 609 to 598. His submission to Nebuchadnezzar surely occurred in 605 in the aftermath of Carchemish. Although 2 Chronicles 36 does not specify a starting point for the running of Jeremiah’s seventy years and explicitly refers to the seventy years only in verse 21 (after referring to the land’s sabbath rests), that does not rule out, as liberals often assume, a starting point some years before 597. Carl Olof Jonsson explains why.

Jonsson points out that 2 Chronicles 36:20 states that the “remnant” that was carried to Babylon in 587/6 “became servants to him [Nebuchadnezzar] and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.” This passage, he insists, corresponds to Jeremiah 27:7, which states that “All nations will serve him [Nebuchadnezzar] and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes.” According to Jonsson, since the Chronicler clearly indicates by his reference to the kingdom of Persia in verse 20 that the seventy years were fulfilled by the Persian conquest of Babylonia; i.e. in 539, he took that year to be the end point of Jeremiah’s prophecy. That opens the door to the possibility of a starting point in 605 or earlier.

But what about the view that the Chronicler took Jeremiah’s seventy years to be a period of sabbath rests of the land? Arguing against this interpretation, Jonsson maintains, is the fact that Jeremiah never makes any reference to sabbath rests in his entire book. He explains the Chronicler’s reference to the sabbath rests in Leviticus as follows: “Like Daniel earlier, the writer of the Chronicles understood the desolation of Judah to be a fulfillment of this curse predicted in the law of Moses. He therefore inserted this prediction from Leviticus 26 to show that it was fulfilled after the final deportation to Babylon, exactly as was predicted by Moses.” As was also the case with Daniel, Jonsson maintains, the Chronicler saw that the exiles had to remain in Babylon until two distinct prophecies were fulfilled: “(1) that of Jeremiah on the seventy years of supremacy ‘for Babylon,’ and (2) that in Leviticus on the desolation and sabbath rest for the land of Judah.” Although these are distinct prophecies referring to periods of different character and different lengths, they were brought together by both the Chronicler and by Daniel because “the end of one period was contingent on the end of the other.”

Here, again, is Jeremiah 25:11: “This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.” A plausible interpretation of this verse is that the servitude of “this whole country” had already begun by the time that Jeremiah received the revelation in Jeremiah 25; i.e. by 605, but the desolation lay in the future. This understanding is reinforced in Jeremiah 29:10 with this passage: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.” Both passages unambiguously focus upon service to Babylon, not the period of the desolation of Judah that began with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

The desolation to which Jeremiah 25:11 refers is not the same, however, as the desolation of Jerusalem and the Temple that occurred in 587/6. What Jeremiah 25:11 refers to is a desolation of “This whole country” that differs greatly in intensity from the desolation experienced by Judah. Moreover, the desolation of 25:11 is unconditional while the desolation that struck Judah apparently was not. The conditionality of Judah’s calamity of 587/6 is shown by Jeremiah 27:17, where the prophet warns Judah to serve the king of Babylon so as to prevent Jerusalem from becoming a ruin.

The distinction between serving Babylon and the desolation to which Jerusalem was subjected is tellingly driven home by Jonsson, who writes that “The servitude . . . was the very opposite of revolt, desolation, deportation, and exile” and goes on to add this powerful comment: “Jeremiah’s prophecy is clearly incompatible with the view that the seventy years referred to the period of the desolation of Judah and Jerusalem. Why? Because this desolation did not end in 539 B.C.E. but later, when a remnant of the Jewish exiles had returned to Judah as a result of Cyrus’ edict.”

Against this line of argument it can be pointed out, as I stated at the beginning of this article, that Daniel 9:2 is commonly translated so as to indicate that Daniel took Jeremiah’s prophecy to mean that the desolation of Jerusalem was to last for seventy years, not that the Jews would serve the king of Babylon for that period of time. Obviously, if this is how Daniel 9:2 should be translated, it would seem that Daniel did not draw the distinction between seventy years of service to Babylon and the desolation of Judah that Jonsson insists is there. Jonsson persuasively argues, however, that his understanding of Daniel 9:2 is sound.

In developing his argument about Daniel 9:2, Jonsson addresses the issue of whether or not Daniel understood the seventy-year prophecy. In view of the fact that critical scholars commonly assume that he did not, I find his analysis on this point to be particularly worthwhile. For evidence that Daniel did understand Jeremiah’s prophecy, Jonsson turns to the long prayer that appears in verses 4-19. Many critical scholars regard this prayer’s insertion as the primary reason for questioning the unity of Daniel 9, and John J. Collins insists that “the prayer was not composed by the author of the rest of the chapter.” Jonsson shows, however, that the prayer sheds light on Daniel’s understanding of Jeremiah’s prophecy and underscores his belief that the fulfillment of that prophecy was at hand.

Not once in Daniel’s long prayer, Jonsson notes, does he mention the seventy years. There was no need to do so because he knew from Jeremiah 29:10 that the seventy years were “for Babylon,” and he also knew that the period of Babylon’s supremacy had just ended. “Of greater importance for Daniel, however, was what the end of the seventy years could mean for his own people, the Jewish exiles at Babylon, and for the devastated city of Jerusalem and its ruined temple,” Jonsson adds, and it was to these matters that he turned in his prayer.

Jeremiah had indicated in 29:10 that when the seventy years for Babylon were completed, the exiles would be allowed to return. Jonsson points out, however, that this promise was conditional. In Jeremiah 12-14, the LORD informs the exiles that they would come to Him in prayer and that when they would seek Him with all their heart, He would listen to them and bring them back from captivity. The purpose of Daniel’s prayer was to meet the conditions that would allow the promise to be fulfilled.

There still remains for consideration, however, the problem posed by the reference in Daniel 9:2 to Jerusalem’s desolation. Jonsson handles this problem as follows. Jeremiah 29:10 connected the seventy years “for Babylon” to the return to Jerusalem. The return would necessarily signal the end to its devastation, and it was this consequence of the return that Daniel chose to emphasize. Although some Bible translations, including the NIV, make Daniel 9:2 read as if the entire seventy years was a period of desolation, these are paraphrases that have been added in a mistaken interpretation of the basic text. The Hebrew there does not say that the devastation was to be for seventy years; what it indicates is that “the desolations of Jerusalem would not cease until the seventy years ’for Babylon’ had ceased.” As an alternative, Jonsson offers this translation from a prominent Hebrew linguist: “In his [Darius’] first regnal year I, Daniel, ascertained, in the writings, that the number of years, which according to the word of JHWH to Jeremiah the prophet would be completely fulfilled, with respect to the desolate state of Jerusalem, were seventy years.” As evidence that he is correct, I present the translation of the New American Standard Bible (NASB): “In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely seventy years.”

Based on the evidence I have presented in this article, a warranted conclusion is that Daniel assumed that the seventy years of Jeremiah were completed in 539, and if he took those seventy years to be equivalent to a lifetime, that lifetime was certainly not one of about forty-nine years. The period running from 605 to 539 was one of sixty-six years, which is close enough to a literal seventy years to give the “lifetime theory” far more plausibility than the “jubilee theory.” In closing this article, however, I would be remiss if I neglected to mention that you can make a strong argument for a literal seventy years for the prophecy of Jeremiah.

Before the rise to power of the New Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar’s father, Nabopolassar, the Assyrians had long dominated the Near East. Nabopolassar formed an alliance with the Medes, and in 612 the allies destroyed Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. The Assyrians set up a new capital at Harran, to the west of Nineveh, and warfare continued between them and the Babylonians for three more years. The king of Egypt, Necho II, came to aid of the Assyrians; and when the Egyptians marched through Judah in the early summer of 609, they were opposed by the army of Josiah, king of Judah. The result was the death of Josiah, the defeat of his army, and—after the three-month reign of Jehoahaz—the installation by the Egyptians of Jehoiakim as their vassal king of Judah. Before 609 ended, however, the army of Nabopolassar drove the Assyrians out of Harran and defeated the efforts of the Egyptians and the Assyrian remnant to retake it. For all practical purposes, Assyria ceased to exist as of that year. The year 609 can thus be legitimately put forth as the year in which Babylonia displaced Assyria as the dominant power in the Near East. That means, of course, that it is possible to argue Jeremiah’s seventy years are a literal seventy years running from 609 to 539.

Against the literal seventy years claim it can be argued that Babylonia did not really gain supremacy in the Near East until the battle of Carchemish in 605 and that a year earlier than 605 for the starting point of Jeremiah’s seventy years is out of the question since the date given for the revelation of Jeremiah 25 is that year. In reply, Jonsson argues that as of 609, “the Babylonian king regarded himself as the legitimate successor of Assyria, and in the following years he gradually took over the control of the latter’s territories, beginning with a series of campaigns in the Armenian mountains north of Assyria.” Moreover, he adds, although Necho contested the control of areas in the west, including Palestine, for the next four years, “his control of these areas appears to have been rather general and loose.” Also, Jonsson notes, Jeremiah does not indicate just when the seventy years were to begin, and his language allows a starting point as early as 609.

In conclusion, I am confident that Daniel understood that Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years of service to Babylon was fulfilled by the fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians in 539 and that the reference to the desolation of Jerusalem in Daniel 9:2 does not signify that he confused Jeremiah’s seventy years with prophecies of the desolation of Jerusalem. I am confident also that the starting point of Jeremiah’s prophecy was no later than 605 and was quite possibly as early as 609. In my judgment, this prophecy stands as a remarkable demonstration of the authenticity of Old Testament prophecy, and Daniel 9:2 is not, as some claim, in conflict with it.

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