The Seventy Years of Babylonian Domination
The Seventy Years of Babylonian Domination 609/608 BCE King Josiah of Judah is killed while attempting to intercede against the Egyptian army. The Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II, is defeated by the Babylonians in 609 BCE, beginning the period of seventy years of Babylonian domination in the region of Palestine. King Jehoiakim (Eliakim) of Judah becomes a vassal king under Nebuchadnezzar in the time of King Nabopolassar of Babylon. 606/605 BCE Nebuchadnezzar commands Babylonian forces and besieges Jerusalem in the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign over Judah. Members of the royal family and others are taken to Babylon, including Daniel (II Kgs. 23:36; II Chron. 36:1-8; Dan. 1:1-7). 605/604 BCE Accession year of King Nebuchadnezzar. Fourth regnal year of King Jehoiakim of Judah. Babylon halts Egyptian interference in the region of Palestine (Jer. 25:1; 46:1-2). 604/603 BCE First regnal year of King Nebuchadnezzar. 603/602 BCE Second regnal year of King Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a “great image” whose “form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay” (Dan. 2:31-33). 598 BCE Jerusalem is besieged a second time by the Babylonians. End of Jehoiakim’s reign. Jehoiachin reigns three months in Jerusalem (II Kgs. 24:8, 10, 18). Accession year of King Zedekiah of Judah. 597/596 BCE Jehoiachin is taken to Babylon. Remains as a prisoner for 37 years until 561/560 BCE (II Kgs. 24:12). 589/588 BCE Jerusalem is besieged a third time by the Babylonians. Siege ends in the 11th year of King Zedekiah of Judah in 587/586 BCE (II Kgs. 25:1-2). 587/586 BCE Jerusalem is “broken up” by the Babylonians (II Kgs. 25:4). 586/585 BCE “And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire. And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about” (II Kgs. 25:8-10). [Author’s emphasis throughout.] 562/561 BCE End of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Accession year of Amelu-Merodach (Evil-merodach). He reigns two years in Babylon. 561/560 BCE Jehoiachin released from prison in the 37th year of his captivity. “And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison; And he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon” (II Kgs. 25:27-28). [Note: The “throne” of Judah is implied to be displaced to Babylon.] 560/559 BCE Accession year of Neriglissar (Nergai-Sharezer, Nergal-šar-uṣur). He ruled four years in Babylon. His name is found in the writings of Jeremiah: “And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon” (Jer. 39:3). 559/558 BCE First year of King Neriglissar. 556/555 BCE Neriglissar’s son, Labashi-Marduk, reigns nine months in Babylon. 556/555 BCE Accession year of King Nabonidus of Babylon. 555/554 BCE First year of King Nabonidus of Babylon. 553/552 BCE First year of King Belshazzar of Babylon. Belshazzar reigns as coregent with Nabonidus. In this year “Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters” (Dan. 7:1). In this dream Daniel saw four wild beasts that rose from the sea. 551/550 BCE Third year of King Belshazzar. In this year “a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai” (Dan. 8:1-2). In this vision Daniel saw a ram and a he-goat that depicted a conflict between the Persians and the Greeks. 550/549 BCE Sixth year of Nabonidus. Nabonidus is understood to be in Tayma (Tema) by his seventh year of reign over Babylon. He remains in Tayma for the next ten years. Tayma is a large oasis in northwestern Saudi Arabia. “The Achaemenid period. The entry for the 6th year (550/549 B.C.E.) of the Nabonidus Chronicle records that Cyrus II defeated Astyages, captured Ecbatana, and removed its treasury to Anshan (Grayson, p. 106, 2.1-4). Cyrus and his successors used Ecbatana as a summer capital and as a treasury (Weissbach, cols. 2156-57; Herodotus 3.64). It is frequently assumed that the city was also a royal archive because Cyrus’ order for the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple was found there (Ezra 6.2; Josephus, Antiquitates 11.99; but cf. Frye, 1962, p. 99), but in fact neither source actually mentions an archive. Little can be made of Pliny’s claim that Ecbatana belonged to the Magi (Naturalis Historia 6.116)” (Encyclopaedia Iranica, iranicaonline.org/articles/Ecbatana). Cyrus defeats Astyages and takes Ecbatana, present-day Hamadān. End of the Median Empire. Ecbatana is the city of Achmetha noted in the book of Ezra (Ezra 6:2). A copy of the decree issued by Cyrus was found in this city in the time of Darius I: “Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon. And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province