70 Years of Captivity in Babylon
This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11, ESV)
Among those who accept a tradition (Jeremiah 29:10) that the exile lasted 70 years, some choose the dates 608 to 538, others 586 to about 516 (the year when the rebuilt Temple was dedicated in Jerusalem). The Babylonian Exile (586–538) marks an epochal dividing point in Old Testament history
Source; Britannica
Putting controversy aside, what is not at debate is that the Lord allowed Israel and Judah to suffer and endure 70 years of captivity in Babylon. Jeremiah pointed out that it came about due to their lack of response to God’s message over the past 23 years.
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem (vv. 1-2, ESV)
Ruling for 43 years, Nebuchadnezzar was the longest-reigning king of the Chaldean dynasty. According to Wikipedia, “By 601 BC, Judah’s king, Jehoiakim, had begun to openly challenge Babylonian authority, counting on that Egypt would lend support to his cause. . . Jehoiakim had died during Nebuchadnezzar’s siege and been replaced by his son, Jeconiah, who was captured and taken to Babylon, with his uncle Zedekiah installed in his place as king of Judah.”
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Daniel on Jeremiah’s 70- Year Prophecy
In the Bible this prophecy is also covered in Jeremiah 25 & 29 (Jeremiah 25:1-11; 29:1-10) and the Book of Daniel. The captivity came about due to the people’s failure to keep their covenant with God and not worship other gods. In other words, one transgression caused other transgressions: turning to other gods caused them to break their covenant and transgress further against God. Their refusal to repent and return to God only further fueled God’s “fierce anger” to burn against them.
Daniel wrote: “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus … I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:1-2). (Source: Lifehopeandtruth)
Although there might be debate over the exact years of captivity, some biblical sources provide support and explanation for the discrepancy. The following passage gives some insight into how the years were calculated.
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary states the following: “Note that it is important to keep these stages of the Captivity in mind when computing the seventy years of exile announced by Jeremiah 29:10; the interval between the first deportation in 605 B.C., in which Daniel himself was involved, and 536 B.C., when the first returnees under Zerubbabel once more set up an altar in Jerusalem, amounted to seventy years. Likewise, the interval between the destruction of the first temple by Nebuzaradan in 586 and the completion of the second temple by Zerubbabel in 516 was about seventy years” (comments on Daniel 1:1-2).
https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/understanding-the-book-of-daniel/daniel-9/
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