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2 Chronicles 36 · a question people ask

Which seventy years does 36:21 mean, and how are they counted?

In the text

The verse says the exile was "to fulfill the LORD’s word by Jeremiah’s mouth, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. As long as it lay desolate, it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years" (36:21). In the book of Jeremiah the LORD speaks of seventy years twice: "these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years" (Jeremiah 25:11), and "After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place" (Jeremiah 29:10). 2 Chronicles doesn't say which of Jeremiah's words it means, and it doesn't say when the seventy years begin or end. These notes quote the verses as they stand, and don't count the years or date them.

The verses

“to fulfill the LORD’s word by Jeremiah’s mouth, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. As long as it lay desolate, it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”
2 Chronicles 36:21 · World English Bible
“This whole land will be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”
Jeremiah 25:11 · World English Bible
“For the LORD says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.”
Jeremiah 29:10 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Chronicles 36

2 Chronicles 36: Let him go up

2 Chronicles gives its own reason for the fall: the LORD sent messengers "because he had compassion on his people" (36:15), and they mocked them "until there was no remedy" (36:16). The same Hebrew verb says the Chaldean king "had no compassion" (36:17). And the book doesn't end in the ashes: its last words are "let him go up" (36:23).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions