fulfil. fulfil. At beginning and end of verse in Hebrew Note the emphasis by the Figure of speech Epanadiplosis. App-6.
Jeremiah. Compare Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 25:12; Jeremiah 29:10.
as long as. all the days. Thus completing. period of seventy years. This was foretold also (Leviticus 23:32; Leviticus 26:34; Leviticus 26:35).
threescore and ten years. See special note on 2 Chronicles 36:21, below.
SPECIAL NOTE ON 2 Chronicles 36:21
THE "SERVITUDE", THE "CAPTIVITY", AND THE "DESOLATIONS". Three Periods of seventy years are assigned to these three respectively, and it is necessary that they should be differentiated.
i. The "servitude" began in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and the first of Nebuchadnezzar, when the "kingdom" passed under Chaldean rule for seventy years (Jeremiah 25:1). This period closed with the capture of Babylon by Darius the Median (Astyages), and the "Decree" of Cyrus to rebuild the Temple. It lasted from 496-426 B.C. ii. The "captivity" commenced, and is dated by Ezekiel from the carrying away to Babylon of JECHONIAH, in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:8-16). This was in 489 B.C. Consequently, when the "servitude" ended in 426 B. C, the "captivity" had lasted for sixty-three (9. 7) years.
Seven years later Cyrus died, in 419 B.C. That year (419) is further notable for:. 1. The appointment of Neherniah as Governor of Jerusalem by Cambysses (Nehemiah 5:14). 2. The completion of "the wall" in fifty-two days (Nehemiah 6:15); and. 3. The fact it marks the end of the fifth of the "seven sevens" of Daniel 9:25. (See App-60.) The "captivity" lasting from 489 to 419 B.C.
iii. The "desolations "commenced with the beginning of the third and last siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 479 B. C, and cover. period of "seventy years", ending in the second year of Darius Hystaspis: i.e. in 409 B.C. This "threescore and ten years" which is referred to here (2 Chronicles 36:21), is the fulfillment of Leviticus 26:32-35, and has reference to "the land". It is this period of which Daniel says he "understood by books", as being the number of the years that Jehovah "would accomplish in the Desolations of Jerusalem" (Daniel 9:2). The Darius here (Daniel 9:1) is evidently Cyrus, the son of Astyages (see notes on p. 618, and App-57); and as the first year of his reign was 426 B. C, it follows that seventeen years had, then, yet to run before the "Desolations" of the land were ended, in 409 B.C. Hence, Daniel's prayer, that follows, resulted in the giving to him the famous prophecy of the "seventy sevens" of years contained in Daniel 9:20-27.