SEVENTY YEARS

The period assigned by Jeremiah for the duration of the Jewish exile in Babylon (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10; compare 2 Chronicles 36:21 f; Ezra 1:1; Daniel 9:2). If the period be reckoned from the date of the first deportation in the 4th year of Jehoiakim (2 Kings 24:1; 2 Chronicles 36:6 ff; Daniel 1:1 by another reckoning calls it the Daniel 3rd year), i.e. 606 BC, till the decree of Cyrus, 536 BC, the prediction was fulfilled to a year.

See CAPTIVITY .

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.