Christian Churches of God
No. 250B
The Fall of Jerusalem to
Babylon
(Edition 1.5 20071110-20071215)
The dating and significance of the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon has a specific part to play in
prophecy and in the Calendar.
Christian Churches of God
PO Box 369,
WODEN
ACT 2606,
AUSTRALIA
E-mail: secretary@ccg.org
(Copyright  2007 Wade Cox)
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Page 2
Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon
The Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon
The Egyptian Subjugation
After the Northern Tribes were taken into
captivity by the Assyrians there was relative
quiet, and Egypt, under the Nubian kings, had
not responded to requests for assistance in
Palestine. However, in 701 BCE an Egyptian
force entered Palestine and fought the
Assyrians under Sennacharib (704-681) in
Palestine, on the side of the king of Judah. The
result was inconclusive, and Assyria and Egypt
kept a buffer of small states between them for
30 years (Baines, Malek, Atlas of Ancient
Egypt, Time Life, 1991, Andromeda Oxford,
pp. 50ff.)
In 674, the Assyrian king Esarhaddon
attempted to conquer Egypt. He was defeated at
the frontier post at Sile. He renewed the attack
in 671 and was successful. Memphis was taken
and the whole country was forced to pay
tribute. Pharaoh Tarhaqa fled south and
regrouped and retook Memphis within two
years. Esahaddon died on the way to Egypt for
a counter-attack.
His son Assurbanipal (669-627) sent a
campaign
which
established
Assyrian
domination in Egypt by using the ruler of Sais
in Egypt, Necho I (672-664), who had styled
himself king and his son Psamtik (later
Psammeticus I). The reality of Egypt was that
there were often sub-rulers in the kingdom and
often these have been used to extend the
dynasties.
In 664 Tantamani succeeded Tarhaqa (also
Tarhaka) and immediately mounted a campaign
throughout Egypt against Necho I, who appears
to have died in the fighting. He does not even
mention the Assyrians in his account of his
campaign in the Delta.
At some date between 663 and 657,
Assurbanipal led a campaign of reprisal in
person and plundered all Egypt, while
Tantamani fled to Nubia.
The Assyrians were then faced with a rebellion
in Babylon, and Psammeticus I was able to
establish Egyptian independence before 653.
Psammeticus I (Wahibre) founded the 26th
dynasty. The 25th dynasty had ruled Nubia and
all Egypt until 664, when Taharqa was
succeeded by Tantamani (664-657 and possibly
later in Nubia). The rule of Psammeticus I is
given as 664-610 BCE (following on from
Necho I (672-664).
Between 664 and 653, Psammeticus I
eliminated all the other local rulers in Lower
Egypt, and in 656 he had his daughter Nicotrice
adopted by Shepenwepet II as the next divine
adoratrice in Thebes, which then bypassed
Amenerdis II. This replaced the dating in
Thebes, which until the previous year had gone
by the reign of Tantamani (ibid.). When in her
seventies, Nicotrice adopted the daughter of
Psammeticus II. ‘Ankhnesneferibre took office
in 586 and was still alive in 525BCE. Thus
these two women served in office as royal
representatives at Thebes for some 130 years.
This Pharaoh, Psammeticus I, was the first to
use Greek and Carian mercenaries, which then
set a pattern for over 300 years. Most nations
after this used Greek mercenaries. The Greeks
settled in Egypt and their history is often
important as a source of information, being
more profuse than Egyptian sources.
By his centralisation of administration
Psammeticus was able to make a continuation
of the 25th dynasty in the 26th and Egypt
prospered and became wealthy. They made a
policy of supporting the opponents of the
dominant power in Asia. They supported Lydia
and later Babylon against Assyria until 620 and
the decline of Assyria. Egypt then changed their
allegiance to Assyria and they supported the
enemies of Babylon until Persia had become
the main power. Necho II (610-595),
Psammeticus II (595-590/89) and Apries
(Hophra) (589-570) all built on the operations
of Psammeticus I and went on the attack.
Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon
Herodotus records Psammeticus I as occupying
Syria for 29 years as follows:
Psammetichus ruled Egypt for fifty-four years,
during twenty-nine of which he pressed the siege of
Azotus without intermission, till finally he took the
place. Azotus is a great town in Syria. Of all the
cities that we know, none ever stood so long a siege
(Histories, II, 157).
Egypt, under this Pharaoh, was able to control
all of Palestine and into Syria with impunity of
action for 29 years.
Judah was first subjected to Egypt under
Pharaoh Necho II. Necho II, probably following
the initiatives of Psammeticus I, campaigned in
Syria from 610–605 BCE.
Herodotus says he at first spent some time in
the construction of the canal between the Nile
and the Red Sea, but lost 120,000 men. He
gave up on the canal, which ran from above
Bubastis near Patumus (termed the Arabian
town, being on the Arabian side of the Egyptian
plain) and followed the chain of hills as far as
Memphis and, skirting the hills, runs east west
on to the Red Sea. It is four days journey in
length and was later completed by Darius the
Persian (ibid., II, 158).
Page 3
Palestine and attacked the king of Assyria. This
year of 610 BCE was a Sabbath year. The Book
of the Law had been found in the Temple in the
18th year of Josiah, and the Temple was
cleansed and the Passover kept. However,
Judah was condemned by their actions (2Chr.
34:8-33). The people kept the Sabbath of the
Passover from Josiah’s 18th year to his 31st year
(611/10), and the Temple was cleansed. At the
end of winter of 610/9, probably well before the
New Year, Pharaoh Necho moved through
Judah to go to Syria to engage in operations
there. On the way, Josiah opposed him. Necho
killed Josiah at Megiddo (2Kgs. 23:29-30;
2Chr. 35:20-26) and continued on to Syria.
Josiah was buried at Jerusalem and Jehoahaz
was made king in his stead. After three months
he was taken captive to Riblah in Hamath. He
was placed in bands, and tribute was levied on
Judah of 100 talents of silver and a talent of
gold each year. Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim,
son of Josiah, king in his stead. He renamed
him Jehoiakim and then returned to Egypt in
609 with Jehoahaz a captive, where he died.
He also ordered the circumnavigation of Africa
(termed Libya) and other journeys. Some ships
reached South-East Asia and Melanesia (cf.
Herodotus, Hist., IV, 42).
Herodotus gives the impression that the canal
work was undertaken first before the campaigns
north; however, the Cimmerians and the
Scythians had entered Asia Minor and
decimated the Assyrian Empire, assisting the
Babylonians. Necho had to hurry north to assist
the Assyrians who were concentrated on
Harran. Some historians hold this move to have
been in the winter/spring period of early 609
rather than 610. However, the sequence does
not fully support this view. In 609 BCE King
Nabopolassar of Babylon captured Kumukh
which cut off the Egyptian army that Necho had
based at Carchemish. Necho responded the
following year by retaking Kumukh after a
four-month siege, and executed the Babylonian
garrison. Nabopolassar brought forth another
army, which he encamped at Qurumati on the
Euphrates. The Babylonian army under the
crown prince suffered a severe setback in 606
BCE. Narbopolassar allegedly returned to
Babylon in January, through bad health, and he
died 16 August 605 BCE.
In the 31st year of Josiah (641/640-610) king of
Judah (i.e. in 610 BCE), Necho II entered
Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he began to
reign and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem
Herodotus then says that immediately he
stopped the construction he built a fleet of
Triremes, both for service in the Mediterranean
and in the Red Sea. The canal was no doubt to
enable a concentration of force, as it was
necessary. The dry docks in the Red Sea were
still visible when Herodotus went there (ibid.,
II, 159).
The fleets were used to support his miliary
operations by land. He occupied Syria and
defeated the Syrians in a pitched battle at
Magdolus, after which he made himself master
of Cadytis, a large city of Syria.
Page 4
(2Kgs. 23:36).
In 605 BCE the Babylonians were victorious at
the battle of Carchemish in Syria, forcing the
withdrawal of the opposing Egyptian and allied
forces and establishing Babylonian supremacy.
Herodotus says of Necho II’s son and heir:
Psammis [Psammeticus II] reigned only six years.
He attacked Ethiopia, and died almost directly
afterwards. Apries, his son, succeeded him upon the
throne, who, excepting Psammetichus, his greatgrandfather, was the most prosperous of all the kings
that ever ruled over Egypt. The length of his reign
was twenty-five years, and in the course of it he
marched an army to attack Sidon, and fought a battle
with the king of Tyre by sea. When at length the
time came that was fated to bring him woe, an
occasion arose which I shall describe more fully in
my Libyan history, only touching it very briefly
here. An army despatched by Apries to attack
Cyrene, having met with a terrible reverse, the
Egyptians laid the blame on him, imagining that he
had, of malice prepense, sent the troops into the jaws
of destruction. They believed he had wished a vast
number of them to be slain in order that he himself
might reign with more security over the rest of the
Egyptians. Indignant therefore at this usage, the
soldiers who returned and the friends of the slain
broke instantly into revolt (ibid., II, 161).
Babylon and Egypt
In the reign of Jehoiakim Nebuchadnezzar
came against Assyria, Egypt, Syria and then
Jerusalem. He left Babylon in the third year of
the reign of Jehoiakim (Dan. 1:1).
Nebuchadnezzar suffered a reverse at the hands
of the Assyrians and Egyptians in 606, which
was the third year of Jehoiakim, from Abib 606
to Adar 605. The Egyptians remained
encamped on the west bank of the Euphrates. In
early 605 BCE Nebuchadnezzar brilliantly
defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish.
Jeremiah says he defeated the Egyptians under
Necho at Carchemish in the fourth year of
Jehoiakim; thus the battle was fought in the
New Year or early spring (comparing Daniel to
Jeremiah) of 605 BCE. The Babylonians had
left for Carchemish before the New Year of
Abib, and so Daniel records they left in the
third year of Jehoiakim, and Jeremiah says they
came against Jerusalem in the fourth year (see
Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon
also Encyc. Britannica article on Battle of
Carchemish).
http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic95348/Battle-of-Carchemish
Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptians and
pursued them into Palestine to their border, but
did not besiege Jerusalem (2Kgs. 24:1). This
was in the fourth year (Jer. 25:1; 46:2) which
was still the first year of the reign of
Nebuchadnezzar, 605/604 BCE. He reigned
conjointly from the spring, and alone from the
first week of September 605 BCE. Jerusalem
capitulated to him and accepted him as victor
(Interp. Dictionary of the Bible, art.
‘Nebuchadrezzzar’, Vol. 3, p. 530). He made
Jehoiakim his servant. And in the following
three years he made campaigns to collect
tribute and crush resistance such as he did at
Ashkelon. In 601 he was virtually defeated by
the Egyptians and withdrew, and under Hophra
the Egyptians reconquered Gaza. This was at
the end of the three years when Jehoiakim was
loyal. In 601 BCE he rebelled. Thus the
Babylonians arrived in the fourth year.
Jehoiakim was loyal for the fifth, sixth and
seventh years, and then rebelled for the eighth,
ninth, tenth and eleventh years of his reign until
he died.
God sent against him the Chaldeans, bands of
Syrians, bands of Moabites and bands of
Ammonites to weaken Judah in order to have
them removed (2Kgs. 24:1-4).
Jehoiakim died in his eleventh year. His son
Jehoiachin reigned in his place for three months
when he was 18 years of age. The Babylonians
came against Jerusalem and laid siege to it in
this year, which was 598 BCE. The
Interpreter’s Dictionary states that it was in the
year 599 BCE that Nebuchadnezzar brought his
newly strengthened army against Syria and the
allies of Egypt, and in 598 he attacked Judah
(ibid.).
In 2Kings 24:12 we are told that
Nebuchadnezzar took him in the eighth year of
his reign. Bullinger assumes the text refers to
Jehoiachin and tries to explain that as being
from when he was entrusted with regal
Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon
authority by his father Jehoiakim in the fourth
year of his reign. The eighth year of
Nebuchadnezzar’s reign was from 605 BCE to
598 BCE. To reach 597 we would have to
assume an early civil New Year and count from
his sole rule after his father death on August 16,
605. He was appointed king within three weeks
in the first week of September 605, as he had to
return from pursuing the Egyptians into
Palestine from Hamath. The Babylonian month
of Teshritu did not commence that early. The
text is referring to Nebuchadnezzar and not to
Jehoiachin’s reign, which as stated was three
months.
Jehoiachin’s reign thus commenced in 598
BCE, and his captivity commenced in that same
year. On 15/16 March 597 BCE the city was
captured and that was before the New Year.
Jehoiachin’s captivity was thus in the year
598/7 BCE, and the second year of his captivity
began shortly thereafter.
The Temple is argued to have fallen in 597
BCE but the Bible timings, on thorough
examination, actually do not support that
theory. They had to pay heavy tribute.
Jehoiachin is recorded as coming out to
Nebuchadnezzar and he and his family and all
the notables were taken into captivity. God had
said they were to go, and Jeremiah had told
them that in no uncertain terms from the days
of Josiah.
The items of gold and precious metals in the
Temple were taken back to Babylon at this
time.
From this year also, Egypt confined itself to its
internal affairs and did not come out of Egypt
again. Babylon took all that was Egypt’s from
the River of Egypt to the Euphrates (2Kgs.
24:7-8).
Zedekiah’s Reign
Zedekiah was made king of Judah in 598/7
BCE after the capitulation of Jerusalem and the
removal of Coniah or Jehoiachin before the
New Year.
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had deported most
Page 5
of the nobility and the remnant of the army of
Judah to Babylon.
What was left was a small group under
Zedekiah, likened by the prophets to rotten figs.
These were roughly split into two major
groups, one pro-Babylonian and the other proEgyptian.
In the year 595/594 an insurrection occurred in
Babylon.
It was against this background that Hananiah’s
speech occurred, dated to the fourth year of
Zedekiah (595/4). He declared that God had
broken the yoke of the King of Babylon, and
the exiles were to be returned and Jehoiachin
restored.
Jeremiah 29 records the zeal of the false
prophets in raising anti-Babylonian sentiment.
They were unsuccessful because of the actions
by Jeremiah and the King. Jeremiah 27:22
gives an account of the actions of the smaller
nations of the West.
According to the Babylonian Chronicle,
Nebuchadnezzar assembled the army to march
into Syria in December of 594. At the same
time, Egypt was fomenting trouble in the
Levant against Babylon. Perhaps also this was
as a result of the death of Pharaoh Necho and
the ascension of Psammeticus II ca. 594 (cf.
Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, art.
‘Zedekiah’, vol. 4).
Zedekiah was approached by Edom, Moab,
Ammon, Tyre and Sidon to rebel against
Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar summoned Zedekiah to
Babylon in his fourth year (Jer. 51). This
appears to be directly related to the
insurrections. Probably because of the
summons of Jeremiah and Nebuchadnezzar,
Zedekiah did not openly join the rebellion but
vacillated between the two parties in Judah.
Finally, the pressure became too great and he
rebelled against the king of Babylon (2Kgs.
Page 6
24:20).
Nebuchadnezzar had repulsed the Egyptians in
605 at the Battle of Carchemish in Syria, and in
601 the king of Babylon attacked Egypt, but
was repulsed by Necho II (610-595). Necho
also fitted out Triremes to control both the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea. They attacked
the coast of Asia Minor. He attempted to link
the Nile and the Red Sea by canal, as
mentioned above.
Psammeticus II (595-589) made a single foray
into Asia with no apparent long-term effects. In
591 he made a campaign into Nubia, also using
Carian and Ionian Greek mercenaries. The
campaign ended 60 years of peaceful relations.
The force reached Napata, but no conquest
seems to have been intended (Baines & Malek,
Atlas of Ancient Egypt, Time Life, p. 51). He
died immediately after this campaign and thus
590 is the more correct date.
Apries or Hophra is listed as assuming the
throne in 589 BCE but it was more probably
590. He is held to have immediately attacked
Philistia. That is assumed to be the cause of
Zedekiah’s open rebellion (Jer. 44:30). The
campaign of Psammeticus II is not mentioned
in the Bible, and it may well be that this
campaign was headed by Hophra as
commander of the army, and occurred in
590/89 under Hophra. Certainly by 589
Zedekiah has the assurance of support from
Egypt.
The name [Hophra] occurs but once in the Bible
(Jer. xliv. 30); in the other passages where this king
is referred to (Jer. xxxvii. 5, 7, 11; Ezek. xxix. 2 et
seq.) he is called "Pharaoh." He is to be identified
with the 'Οάφρης of Manetho and the 'Απρίης of
Herodotus and Diodorus. Hophra was the fourth
king of the twenty-sixth dynasty, the son of
Psammetichus II. and grandson of Necho. When
Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, Hophra
marched to the assistance of the Jews, and the siege
was interrupted for a short time (Jer. xxxvii. 5, 7,
11). According to Herodotus (ii. 161), Hophra also
helped the Tyrians against Nebuchadnezzar, and had
a certain degree of success. It is very likely that the
words of Ezekiel xxix. 18 refer to this event.
Jeremiah (xliv. 30) and Ezekiel (xxix. 2-xxxii.)
predicted the fall of Hophra and Egypt through the
Babylonians; but according to historical statements
these predictions were not fulfilled. Hophra was
Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon
dethroned by Amasis and strangled by the mob
(Herodotus, ii. 169) (Jewish Encyclopedia).
There was a rebellion in Egypt that arose from
the campaign by Hophra at the end of his reign.
Herodotus deals with it in 2.162 and in the
Libyan account, but there was never any
attempt by the Babylonians to enter Egypt at
the siege of Jerusalem in 589. They simply
advanced towards Wadi El Arish and the
Egyptians withdrew.
Hophra was killed by his successor Amasis
long after Jerusalem was destroyed.
At the time of the rebellion and the problems
with Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar marched to the
West and set up his headquarters at Riblah on
the Orontes River in Syria (2Kgs. 25:6, 20ff.).
Zedekiah thus was forced to decide, and
supported the pro-Egyptian party. Ezekiel
records the indecision of Nebuchadnezzar
(Ezek. 21:18ff.). He then made a decision to
attack Judah and Zedekiah at Jerusalem. He
sent the army but remained at Riblah (2Kgs.
25:6, 20ff.; cf. Jer. 38:17ff.).
The cities of Lachish and Azecha in Judah had
been attacked by the Babylonians, and Jeremiah
37:5 says that the advance of the Egyptian army
forced the Babylonians to raise the siege and
meet them. The order of Jeremiah 32, 33, 34,
35, and 39 shows clearly that the siege was
commenced in the ninth year of Zedekiah in the
Tenth month, on the Tenth day of the month.
The Egyptians did not leave Egypt, as the Bible
says, and there is no record of any battle being
fought with them, and Nebuchadnezzar did not
leave Riblah much less go to Egypt. The
Northern Army did not go into Egypt and
conquer it until Cambyses occupied it in 525
BCE. (See the paper The Fall of Egypt (No.
36): The Prophecy of Pharaoh’s Broken Arms.)
It was sufficient for the Babylonians to march
towards the Egyptians to get them to retire.
The Bible text indicates that as a result of the
lifting of the siege the slaves were reclaimed.
God told Jeremiah to go to Zedekiah and tell
Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon
him that as a result of that activity they would
be sent into captivity.
In the tenth year the Babylonians had resumed
the siege, as we see in Jeremiah chapter 32, and
Jeremiah was shut up in the Court of the
Prison. He had been arrested when the
Babylonians went to meet the Egyptians when
they moved to aid Judah following the invasion
of December, and the nobles and wealthy broke
their oaths and reclaimed the slaves. Jeremiah
was then arrested and was in prison and the
Babylonians had returned without any battle
with the Egyptians, and certainly before any
serious length of time.
It is advanced by many historians that he sent
the army directly to Jerusalem and the siege
began in December 589 and that it was lifted
for a while in order to deal with Egypt.
This is also based on a construction attributed
to the Masoretic Text (MT) and perhaps is
influenced by the fact that the Septuagint
(LXX) used the date the tenth year of Zedekiah
for the text in what is listed as Jeremiah 39:1,
stating also that it was the 18th year of
Nebuchadnezzar when Jeremiah had been shut
up in the Court of the Prison. Thus the
comments and statements in Jeremiah 39
cannot be the same data contained in 2Kings
25:1-2. The 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar can
only be the tenth year of Zedekiah if we take
his reign from the Babylonian cycle in
September 606/5 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar’s 18th
year was in 588/7 BCE, which was the eleventh
year of Zedekiah. That is confirmed by the MT
text in Jeremiah 32. The numbering of the texts
in the LXX differs from the MT as it does
elsewhere. The text concerns the field at
Anathoth, and the difference in order in the MT
disguises the timing. The text in the LXX
clearly states the Babylonians were there and
had raised a rampart against the walls of the
city already. No rampart would have been
allowed to remain over the departure and
return, and its destruction would have been
commenced immediately.
When Jeremiah had the direction regarding the
field in Anathoth he was not yet imprisoned,
Page 7
but was arrested when he attempted to go there.
However, it is clear that the LXX understands
the two comments to be different events and
not a repeat of the same event. After he was
imprisoned then the relative at Anathoth was
told to go to Jeremiah, and Jeremiah was told
that by God. That event occurred in the tenth
year of Zedekiah. Zedekiah reigned from Adar
598/7 and thus his tenth year was 589/8 and his
eleventh year was 588/7.
Also, the army would have had to bypass the
Egyptians. The Egyptians invaded the
Philistines. The Pharaohs Psammeticus II and
Hophra both encouraged Zedekiah. Egypt had
caused a diversion that forced the encampment
at Riblah and the march into Judah in 589. The
Egyptian navy made the aid immediate and the
advance came from the border not far to the
south, and perhaps involved Gaza also. They
retreated again quickly and no battle was
recorded. So, the siege was resumed by the
advancement of the tenth year of Zedekiah.
The differing dates of the tenth and twelfth
months of Zedekiah’s ninth year for the siege in
the MT and the Knox Vulgate may come from
the two possibilities that the dates represent the
commencement and the resumption of the
siege, the second date being the resumption of
the siege. The siege would have thus been
resumed in Adar 589/8. The liberation and
reclamation of the slaves should have occurred
for the beginning of the Sabbath Year, and not
at its end. However, it is possible.
The other alternative is that the Babylonians
arrived in 589 before Tishri. The restoration
occurred and the Babylonians left and returned
in the Tenth month, Tebeth, as a result of the
backsliding of Judah and the retreat of the
Egyptians.
According to the Temple Calendar and the
dates we have from the other sources, the
Jubilees were 24 and 74 of the previous era.
The Sabbath fell in the years 25, 32, 39, 46, 53,
60, 67, with the Jubilee in 74, and the previous
Sabbaths in 75, 82, 89, 96, 3, 10, 17, with the
Jubilee in 24. Zedekiah’s tenth year in 589 was
a Sabbath year (see the timing sequence
Page 8
Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon
below).
From the Babylonian Chronicles, we know for
a fact that the vernal equinox occurred in
WeAdar or Adar 2, which was in March of 597,
and the fall of Jerusalem was on 15/16 March.
The captivity began from this date. The matter
has been determined and was explained in
detail in the paper The Meaning of Ezekiel’s
Vision (No. 108), and especially in the
footnotes (see also below).
The reign of Zedekiah was thus from 598/7 in
Adar to 588/7 BCE. The fall of the Temple and
the Bible dating thus help us confirm and reestablish the Calendar for each restoration.
Hezekiah and the relevance to the
Calendar
The text in 2Kings 19:29 is taken as a calendar
determination of a Sabbath and Jubilee. The
text says:
29
“The fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity is
established in the following manner. We know
that Jerusalem fell and that Jehoiachin was
taken prisoner on the second day of Adar or
15/16 March in the year 597 BCE (according to
Encyclopedia Judaica; see also Interpreter’s
Dict. (loc. cit)). As Adar is the last month of the
year (and this year was WeAdar or Adar 2: see
note at end of paper), his second year began one
month later in Nisan or April 597 BCE at the
beginning of the Sacred Year. The fifth year
was therefore 594 BCE, which establishes the
thirtieth year of the Sacred Calendar at 594
BCE. The Jubilee years therefore fell on the
years 574 BCE and 524 BCE in that century
and so on to 1 CE, and the conversion to the
current eras placed the first Jubilee year of the
current era at 27” (cf. the paper Meaning of
Ezekiel’s Vision (No. 108)).
The decrees and documents we have preserved
or found, such as that of Julius Caesar made at
the beginning of 44 BCE, confirm this calendar
cycle, as do the archaeological excavations.
These are examined in the paper Distortion of
God’s Calendar in Judah (No. 195B).
In the time of Nebuchadnezzar the equinox was
much later than it is today, i.e. on 27 March,
and it is the equinox that determines the turn of
the year, and the year commences from the
New Moon nearest to that date.
In 597 BCE:
“The New Moon fell on 12 March at 1500
hours Jerusalem LMT. The next New Moon
fell on 11 April at 0733 hours. The equinox fell
on 27 March at 1333 hours Jerusalem LMT.”
(No.108 ibid.)
And this shall be a sign unto you, You will eat this
year such things as grow of themselves, and in the
second year that which springs of the same; and in
the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and
eat the fruits thereof. 30 And the remnant that is
escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take
root downward and bear fruit upward 31 For out of
Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that
escape out of mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of
Hosts shall do this.
This text does not conform to any other Bible
reference in relation to the Calendar. The text
of 2Kings 19:32-37 telescopes twenty years
into a few verses. There are two distinct
historical events involved, separated by twenty
years. Sennacherib (705-681) did return to
Assyria but he reigned for another twenty years.
The Bible also mentions Tirhakah as Pharaoh
of Egypt, when he was not Pharaoh at the time.
His predecessor Shabaka was Pharaoh (Interp.
Dict., vol, 4, ‘Sennacherib’, p. 271b refers).
The events in the text of chapter 19 are
prophecy and relate to the remnant of Judah,
and why it must remain in Zion and not be
removed. It looks forward in prophecy and is a
sign that is dealt with in Hezekiah’s Songs of
the Degrees, which are contained in Psalm 126
especially at verses 5 and 6. That text also
refers to the same sign given in Isaiah 37:30.
That is a reference to Yahovah as the Messiah
and that at the end of a Jubilee the Messiah
would begin his ministry and take root and
plant downwards, and from that event in the
first year of the new Jubilee he would form his
Church as the remnant that escapes out of Zion.
Thus to that end, Sennacherib would not be
permitted to deport Judah, as they would have
been sent where he sent Israel – beyond the
Araxes – and that was not in accordance with
Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon
the Plan of God. They had to remain in the
Middle East until the Messiah and the
replacement of the Temple with the Church,
which began in 28 CE after the imprisonment
of John the Baptist. The text as prophecy thus
again confirms the Calendar.
Hezekiah was given a further fifteen years from
Page 9
this time. The 14th year of Hezekiah was the
year this all occurred and then he reigned a
further fifteen years, making it twenty-nine
years all told. We will examine this further in
the paper dealing with Hezekiah and Isaiah.
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