Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>]

Dirk,
> I meant it to read:
>
> Just a side note. The seventy years could be a round. However, it is not necessary. If you take Jeremiah at face value - as 70 years of servitude for "these nations" to the "king of Babylon", then you can start with the full conquering of the ***ASSYRIAN*** empire in 609 BC.... 609-539 = 70 years exactly.  
>   

HH: Well, I better retract my "Fine," since you do not seem to be making 
a valid point now that I look at the details. I thought you meant 
Babylon's conquering of Israel, but even that may not be right

HH: The prophecy is primarily about Israel, especially in Dan 9:2 but 
also in Jeremiah 25 and 29. In Jer 29:10 I would assume that it was 
Babylon's 70 years of hegemony over Israel that was in view.

HH: What is more significant is that Assyria is not even mentioned by 
name in the list of nations that Babylon would rule over in Jer 25:17-26.

HH: The dating is clear in Jer 25:1:

Jer. 25:1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of 
Judah, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah (that 
was the first year of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon),

HH: The fourth year of Jehoiakim was 606 or 605 B.C., but Jeremiah 
prophesies of something that is going to happen in the future. So he is 
not prophesying the destruction of  Assyria earlier in 609 B.C:

Jer. 25:8 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not 
obeyed my words,
Jer. 25:9 I am going to send for all the tribes of the north, says the 
LORD, even for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will 
bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these 
nations around; I will utterly destroy them, and make them an object of 
horror and of hissing, and an everlasting disgrace.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard
>