Land Sabbath

[Jim652]

Hi:
Nice to get to know you. I am a newbie. I have been studying the Bible for well over 30 years. I had the following question for a long time and have yet to find anyone that has an answer. I hope God will lead me to someone who has the answer.

2Chronicles 16 speaks about the 70 years of captivity(one year of captivity for each Land Sabbath broken) of Judah after the Babylonian captivity in 606 BC. This spans a period of 490 years and if we include the Jubilee years it is more. What is confusing me is Ezekiel 4:6 & 7 that talks about a total span of 430 years. Can you explain why 490 years total (one year of captivity for each Land Sabbath broken for a total of 490 years or do we need to include the Jubilee year as Sabbaths also?) and Ezekiel has a total of 430 years... Soooooo confusing. I would certainly appreciate it if someone blessed with wisdom can clarify all of this. Blessings and thanks.

 

[Robert Gwin]

Hi:
Nice to get to know you. I am a newbie. I have been studying the Bible for well over 30 years. I had the following question for a long time and have yet to find anyone that has an answer. I hope God will lead me to someone who has the answer.

2Chronicles 16 speaks about the 70 years of captivity(one year of captivity for each Land Sabbath broken) of Judah after the Babylonian captivity in 606 BC. This spans a period of 490 years and if we include the Jubilee years it is more. What is confusing me is Ezekiel 4:6 & 7 that talks about a total span of 430 years. Can you explain why 490 years total (one year of captivity for each Land Sabbath broken for a total of 490 years or do we need to include the Jubilee year as Sabbaths also?) and Ezekiel has a total of 430 years... Soooooo confusing. I would certainly appreciate it if someone blessed with wisdom can clarify all of this. Blessings and thanks.

Hi Jim, welcome to the forum sir. Perhaps this will explain your question:
From 607 B.C.E. to return from exile. The length of this period is fixed by God’s own decree concerning Judah, that “all this land must become a devastated place, an object of astonishment, and these nations will have to serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”—Jer 25:8-11.

The Bible prophecy does not allow for the application of the 70-year period to any time other than that between the desolation of Judah, accompanying Jerusalem’s destruction, and the return of the Jewish exiles to their homeland as a result of Cyrus’ decree. It clearly specifies that the 70 years would be years of devastation of the land of Judah. The prophet Daniel so understood the prophecy, for he states: “I myself, Daniel, discerned by the books the number of the years concerning which the word of Jehovah had occurred to Jeremiah the prophet, for fulfilling the devastations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.” (Da 9:2) After describing the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, 2 Chronicles 36:20, 21 states: “Furthermore, he carried off those remaining from the sword captive to Babylon, and they came to be servants to him and his sons until the royalty of Persia began to reign; to fulfill Jehovah’s word by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had paid off its sabbaths. All the days of lying desolated it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”

Jerusalem came under final siege in Zedekiah’s 9th year (609 B.C.E.), and the city fell in his 11th year (607 B.C.E.), corresponding to Nebuchadnezzar’s 19th year of actual rule (counting from his accession year in 625 B.C.E.). (2Ki 25:1-8) In the fifth month of that year (the month of Ab, corresponding to parts of July and August) the city was set afire, the walls were pulled down, and the majority of the people were led off into exile. However, “some of the lowly people of the land” were allowed to remain, and these did so until the assassination of Gedaliah, Nebuchadnezzar’s appointee, whereupon they fled into Egypt, finally leaving Judah completely desolate. (2Ki 25:9-12, 22-26) This was in the seventh month, Ethanim (or Tishri, corresponding to parts of September and October). Hence the count of the 70 years of desolation must have begun about October 1, 607 B.C.E., ending in 537 B.C.E. By the seventh month of this latter year the first repatriated Jews arrived back in Judah, 70 years from the start of the full desolation of the land.—2Ch 36:21-23; Ezr 3:1.

 

[Jim652]

Thank you Robert for sharing your wisdom of the Bible with me. You are surely blessed. Do you know if there is a way to verify, using dates of Biblical events or any other method to clarify, if the 50th day (also the 1st year leading up to a first Land Sabbath of a cycle) of a Jubilee Sabbatical years was included in the 70 years of captivity (1 year of captivity for each Sabbatical year) or was it only the 1st through the 7th Sabbatical years during the 49 year periods?

 

[GRACE ambassador]

Thank you Robert for sharing your wisdom of the Bible with me.

Precious friend, A Very Warm Welcome to the Board.

Please Be Very RICHLY Encouraged, Enlightened, Exhorted, And Edified In
The LORD JESUS CHRIST, And In His Word Of Truth, Rightly Divided!

Bible Answer To Confusing church Bewilderment!

GRACE And Peace...