Zechariah 7:5

7:5 “Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh ¹  months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me – for me, indeed?

Zechariah 7:2

7:2 Now the people of Bethel ²  had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech and their companions to seek the Lord’s favor

Zechariah 1:21

1:21 I asked, “What are these going to do?” He answered, “These horns are the ones that have scattered Judah so that there is no one to be seen. ³  But the blacksmiths have come to terrify Judah’s enemies ⁴  and cut off the horns of the nations that have thrust themselves against the land of Judah in order to scatter its people.” ⁵ 

Jeremiah 25:11-12

25:11 This whole area ⁶  will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.’ ⁷ 

25:12 “‘But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation ⁸  for their sins. I will make the land of Babylon ⁹  an everlasting ruin. ¹⁰  I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 29:10

29:10 “For the Lord says, ‘Only when the seventy years of Babylonian rule ¹²  are over will I again take up consideration for you. ¹³  Then I will fulfill my gracious promise to you and restore ¹⁴  you to your homeland. ¹⁵ 

Daniel 9:2

9:2 in the first year of his reign ¹⁶  I, Daniel, came to understand from the sacred books ¹⁷  that, according to the word of the LORD ¹⁸  disclosed to the prophet Jeremiah, the years for the fulfilling of the desolation of Jerusalem ¹⁹  were seventy in number.

¹ tn The seventh month apparently refers to the anniversary of the assassination of Gedaliah, governor of Judah (Jer 40:13-14; 41:1), in approximately 581 b.c.

² map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

³ tn Heb “so that no man lifts up his head.”

⁴ tn Heb “terrify them”; the referent (Judah’s enemies) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “to scatter it.” The word “people” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “All this land.”

⁷ sn It should be noted that the text says that the nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years, not that they will lie desolate for seventy years. Though several proposals have been made for dating this period, many ignore this fact. This most likely refers to the period beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s defeat of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish in 605 b.c. and the beginning of his rule over Babylon. At this time Babylon became the dominant force in the area and continued to be so until the fall of Babylon in 538 b.c. More particularly Judah became a vassal state (cf. Jer 46:2; 2 Kgs 24:1) in 605 b.c. and was allowed to return to her homeland in 538 when Cyrus issued his edict allowing all the nations exiled by Babylon to return to their homelands. (See 2 Chr 36:21 and Ezra 1:2-4; the application there is made to Judah but the decree of Cyrus was broader.)

⁸ tn Heb “that nation.”

⁹ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for the use of the term “Chaldeans.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation, oracle of the Lord, their iniquity even upon the land of the Chaldeans and I will make it everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been restructured to avoid ambiguity and to conform the style more to contemporary English.

¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

¹² sn See the study note on Jer 25:11 for the reckoning of the seventy years.

¹³ tn See the translator’s note on Jer 27:22 for this term.

¹⁴ tn Verse 10 is all one long sentence in the Hebrew original: “According to the fullness of Babylon seventy years I will take thought of you and I will establish my gracious word to you by bringing you back to this place.” The sentence has been broken up to conform better to contemporary English style.

¹⁵ tn Heb “this place.” The text has probably been influenced by the parallel passage in 27:22. The term appears fifteen times in Jeremiah and is invariably a reference to Jerusalem or Judah.

¹⁶ tc This phrase, repeated from v. 1, is absent in Theodotion.

¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text has “books”; the word “sacred” has been added in the translation to clarify that it is Scriptures that are referred to.

¹⁸ sn The tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters which constitute the divine Name, YHWH) appears eight times in this chapter, and nowhere else in the book of Daniel.

¹⁹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.