In the previous blog, we saw that the prophecy of the seventy weeks of years does not stand on its own. It forms part of a much larger biblical chronology. From Abraham to Christ, we find four consecutive periods of five hundred years.
The third five-hundred-year period ends with the seventy years of desolation foretold by Jeremiah. These seventy years form the immediate background to the prophecy of the seventy weeks of years. Daniel reads in the prophecies of Jeremiah that this period is drawing to a close. But why, exactly, had a period of seventy years of desolation been determined?
seventy years
Jeremiah had announced the destruction of Jerusalem and the dominion of Babylon long beforehand. The people had not listened to the prophets whom YAHWEH had sent to them, and therefore judgment would come:
Jeremiah 25 (based on ISA)
11 And this whole land shall become a desolation, a wasteland, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
After these seventy years, God would deal with the king of Babylon and his nation (v. 12). Elsewhere, Jeremiah says that when the seventy years for Babylon had been fulfilled, YAHWEH would look upon His people and fulfill His good word by causing them to return to the land (Jer. 29:10).
The duration of this period was therefore fixed. Jerusalem would be destroyed, the people would go into exile, and only after seventy years would restoration come.
the land would rest
But why seventy years? At the end of 2 Chronicles, we are not only told that Jeremiah’s prophecy was fulfilled, but also why the land was given this period of rest. After the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the deportation of the people, we read:
2 Chronicles 36 (based on ISA)
21 …to fulfill the word of YAHWEH by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it rested, to fulfill seventy years.
The seventy years were therefore not an arbitrarily chosen period. During these years, the land had its Sabbaths made up. To understand what this means, we need to go back to the law God had given to Israel.
a Sabbath for the land
When Israel entered the land, it was not only the people who were to observe the Sabbath. The land itself was also given a Sabbath. YAHWEH had said to Moses concerning this:
Leviticus 25 (based on ISA)
2 When you come into the land that I am giving you, then the land shall rest a Sabbath for YAHWEH.
3 Six years you shall sow your land, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its produce.
4 But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of rest for the land, a Sabbath for YAHWEH. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not prune your vineyard.
For six years, Israel was permitted to sow the land, prune the vineyard, and gather its produce. But the seventh year was “a Sabbath of rest for the land” (v. 4). There was to be no sowing and no pruning. The land was to rest.
Here, then, we find the same reckoning of time that will later prove to be of great importance for Daniel’s prophecy: six years followed by a seventh year, the Sabbath year. But Israel did not observe these Sabbaths as God had commanded.
the Sabbaths made up
That the land would eventually receive the Sabbaths it had missed had also been announced beforehand. In Leviticus 26, YAHWEH warned Israel about what would happen if the people disobeyed Him. The people would be driven out of the land:
Leviticus 26 (based on ISA)
33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw the sword after you. And your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a wasteland.
34 Then the land shall accept its Sabbaths, all the days that it lies desolate and you are in the land of your enemies. Then the land shall rest and make up for its Sabbaths.
35 All the days that it lies desolate, it shall rest, because it did not rest during your Sabbaths when you dwelt upon it.
And further on, what would happen to the land and the people is summarized once more:
Leviticus 26 (based on ISA)
43 But the land shall be abandoned by them, and it shall have its Sabbaths made up while it lies desolate without them; and they shall bear the punishment for their iniquity, because they rejected My statutes and their soul loathed My ordinances.
What had been announced as a warning in Leviticus becomes reality at the end of 2 Chronicles. Israel is driven out of the land, and the land lies desolate. The Sabbaths it had not received while Israel dwelt in the land are now made up. And this takes place over a period of seventy years.
seventy Sabbath years
This means that the seventy years of desolation represent seventy Sabbath years that were owed to the land. Every seventh year was, after all, to be a Sabbath year. But these Sabbath years were connected with another reckoning of time. After seven Sabbath years, seven times seven years, came the Jubilee year:
Leviticus 25 (based on ISA)
8 And you shall count for yourself seven Sabbaths of years, seven years seven times, and the days of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be forty-nine years for you.
After these 49 years, the following year was set apart:
10 And you shall hallow the year, the fiftieth year…
Each cycle of fifty years therefore contained seven Sabbath years. If the land was compensated for seventy Sabbath years, this amounts to ten such cycles:
10 × 7 Sabbath years = 70 Sabbath years
10 × 50 years = 500 years
That is remarkable. In the previous blog, we saw that five hundred years elapsed from Solomon to Cyrus: 430 years up to the destruction of Jerusalem, followed by seventy years of desolation. The seventy Sabbath years likewise fit exactly within ten Jubilee cycles of fifty years.
This also makes clear what the four periods of five hundred years from the previous blog represent together. Four times five hundred years is two thousand years, or forty Jubilee cycles of fifty years.
from seventy years to seventy weeks
At the end of these seventy years, we arrive at Daniel 9. Daniel reads in the writings of Jeremiah:
Daniel 9 (based on ISA)
1 In the first year of Darius (…)
2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the scrolls the number of years concerning the word of YAHWEH that came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would fulfill seventy years for the desolations of Jerusalem.
Daniel therefore knows that the appointed period is drawing to a close. He turns to God, confesses the sins of his people, and pleads for Jerusalem, the holy mountain, and the desolate sanctuary (vv. 3-19).
While Daniel is still praying, Gabriel appears and reveals a new period to him:
Daniel 9 (based on ISA)
24 Seventy weeks are determined concerning your people and concerning your holy city…
That connection is significant. Daniel had been occupied with seventy years given to the land to make up for its Sabbaths. And at that very moment, he receives a prophecy concerning seventy sevens, that is, seventy weeks of years.
The Sabbath reckoning therefore forms not only the background to the seventy years of desolation. It also forms the immediate background to the seventy weeks of years that Gabriel then reveals.
What exactly are these weeks of years, and how should they be reckoned? We will look at that in the next blog.