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Sabbatical and Jubilee Analysis
Part Four Session One
Old Testament Jubilee Timeline
Southern Kingdom Geo-politics
Transcribed and edited from video

www.answersoflife.com

The Spirit of YHWH is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to declare the acceptable year of YHWH, and the day of recompence; to comfort all that mourn; (Isa 61:1-2 Brenton)

We will be digging into the Old Testament particularly the historical record of the Southern Kingdom. We have been going through this agenda and have gotten through the history, background, Torah instructions and how to count the Sabbatical and Jubilee.

This time we are starting what will be three sessions that I have labeled to be Part 4, and this group of sessions will be about the Old Testament Jubilee timeline. When is the Sabbatical and Jubilee? We are coming up to the proof that Ezekiel chapter 40 in verse 1 is actually proclaiming a Jubilee year.

We are going to take a look at the inner-connected geo-political events that occur at the downfall of the Southern Kingdom starting in 609 BCE and completing in the year of 587 with the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple. We are going to look at the players that are involved and digging into the scriptures, one of the common names that many people know is King Nebuchadnezzar II. The others will be the sons of Josiah and their kingships that occurred with Zedekiah in 587 and the downfall of Jerusalem. The scripture is rich with the information about this particular time in history.

We will be looking at the political events in the next two sessions after this one, and will cover the same period of time with additional detail, scripture, and an actual timeline. The intent today is to get our arms around the events that are going on and see how they in fact do inner-connect.

Calendar Timeline Integrity
Prologue

• Considerable academic debate regarding actual dates of historical events
• Regnal anniversary dates require Gregorian calendar reconciliation
• The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings
  Reconstruction of chronology of Kingdoms of Israel and Judah by Edwin R. Thiele (1951)
• Scripture used as a baseline
• Secular records used as historical support
• Objective is to prove the Jubilee date in Eze 40 using interlocked historical events.

There are a few items of prologue about developing a timeline and the integrity of it. It is important that it’s pinpointed exactly correct as is the Jubilee. If indeed this timeline is correct, all of the events have to fit into it perfectly. I need to state that there is considerable academic debate regarding some of these dates and some of the historical events. Some are solid and firm, and most scholars and historians agree, but when you start digging into this, you will see that there is a lot of debate on this subject matter and on the players that we are going to look at.

We also need to be mindful that the kings anniversaries, or the regnal anniversary dates require reconciliation with our Gregorian calendar which is much different than the Biblical calendar that they were using. We’ve done that and I just want to be mindful that it’s an important part of this. You just can’t take the Gregorian calendar and try to put all of this together without reconciling it to the Hebrew Biblical calendar. Fundamentally, we have the difference of a solar calendar which is Gregorian based versus a lunar calendar which is Biblically based.

We have the book called “The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings”, and this book has proven to be instrumental to us in our research, but it isn’t the only one. If you want one reference material that would be useful for the study of Sabbatical and Jubilee, this would be one that would probably be worth having in your library. It is a reconstruction of the chronology of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah by Edwin Thiele. There are certainly other works that are like this, but this one is particularly good if you like to know when the kings of Israel, both the North and Southern kingdoms actually ruled. Thiele has done a wonderful job of looking at all of the evidence and putting it together.

We would certainly be remiss if we didn’t remind ourselves, as well as everyone else, that the scripture is our baseline and that is what we use to make our timeline from. We also used secular records as historical support. You will see Josephus works in Antiquities.

The objective for this time is to start looking forward and prove that the Jubilee date in Ezekiel 40 is correct, the date that we have come up with by using inner-locking historical events. We will start to see them as we look at the geo-political record and when we are able to inner-lock the events without any exceptions then this puzzle comes to be a full picture. That is what we are endeavoring to do in the next two presentations.

Calendar Timeline Integrity
Accession Dating

• Accession Dating (Postdating system)
  Tenure of reigning monarch counted in full years
  cf. birthdate of new born
  1 year old after 12 months
  Zero year not counted
• Zero year called Accession Year – next is year 1
• First months (or partial year) of reigning monarch counted as zero
• Exclusive counting

I mentioned last session about the dating alternatives and I want to add a little more detail as foundational information. We talked about accession dating last time and will talk about it a little more so you have a better picture. It’s not that you need to understand this in detail, but to know that this consideration is important when you start looking at the dates of kings particularly in the time frame that we are talking about, around 600 BCE.

Accession dating is also known as the post-dating system. It counts the tenure of a reigning monarch in full years. In other words, it is similar to the birth date system that we use in today’s society. A child is born and twelve months later he becomes one year old. He isn’t counted as zero years but as one year old only after that first year transpires. You are one year old after twelve months, there is no zero year counted. In the case of this accession dating method, the zero year, or those first twelve months or parts of twelve months is called the accession year.

Following the accession year which doesn’t have a number, the following year is year one. The first months or the partial year of a reigning monarch effectively is counted as zero with the accession dating method. You could also consider this exclusive counting.

The House of Judah, in contrast to the Northern Kingdom or the House of Israel likely used this method until King Jehoram in 848 BCE, when non-accession dating was instituted. There is also another component of this which is what month you make the transition. The two alternatives are Nisan and Tishri. Nisan accession dating was a Babylonian practice that is well documented and well known. In other words, the regnal anniversary of a king in Babylon was upgraded to the next number using this accession dating method at Nisan or month one.

Likely this accession dating method was used in Daniel chapters 1 and 2 for Nebuchadnezzar’s regnal reign. I specifically said not Jehoiakim. You will see why when we get into the scriptures why I said that. Just keep that in mind. The Book of Jeremiah and 2 Kings use accession dating for Nebuchadnezzar’s regnal year so it seems to be consistent in the scriptures. In Daniel 1:1 the scripture says:

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. (Dan 1:1 KJV)

The third year of reign of Jehoiakim also is coincident with Nebuchadnezzar’s reign as a king in Babylon, a likely reference, and we will get into the details once we get into the presentation. This was Nebuchadnezzar’s accession year. In other words, his zero year. That coincides with Jehoiakim’s non accession year three. This interpretation reconciles Daniels three years of training that is referenced in Daniel 1:5-18. We pinpoint this historically to 606 – 604 BCE.

The other part of this when you read it is in Daniel chapter 2 because it says that Daniel’s first service was the second year of King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel had three years in training and we know that Daniel was taken captive by a deportation of Nebuchadnezzar. Three years in training has to equal three years of Nebuchadnezzar being king even though he says in Daniel 2 that it was his second year. I think the only way you can explain that is using the accession dating method when the accession year, or the zero year is figured into the number of years for Nebuchadnezzar. We’ll get a little more into that and if you were to make just a simple calendar for accession dating it would look like this:

The accession year is the year is the year before years one two and three. Effectively if this was the reign of a king, he would have reigned four years total, but he would be counted as reigning three with the first being the zero or the accession year.

Calendar Timeline Integrity
Non-Accession Dating

• Non-accession Dating (Ante-dating system)
• Tenure of reigning monarch counted in partial years
• First months ^{partial year} of reigning monarch counted as year 1
• Northern Kingdom ^{House of Israel} began year 2 of reigning monarch on Nisan
• Southern Kingdom ^{House of Judah} began year 2 of reigning monarch on Tishri
• Inclusive counting

The non-accession dating is also known as ante-dating, and this type of dating is when the tenure of a reigning monarch is counted in partial years, the beginning part of his reign. The first months, or the partial year of the reigning monarch is counted as year one, not zero. The Northern Kingdom, or the House of Israel began the second year of counting their reigning monarch on Nisan, it’s the Northern Kingdom. As we mentioned last time, likely Jeroboam, who had a hiatus in Egypt, learned this dating method particularly starting in Nisan from the Egyptians. In any case, that is what appears to be how the scriptures have unfolded this.

• The Southern Kingdom, the House of Judah, began the second year reign of their monarchs on Tishri. You see that we have a difference. You could call this system inclusive counting, the partial months are inclusively counted as year one.
• The Northern Kingdom likely used this dating method throughout their 209 year history. I think there is a possible exception from the year 797 to 723 BCE when it appears they used accession dating, but I haven’t gotten to the bottom of that, but it seems like the exception.
• The Southern Kingdom used non-accession dating method starting in 848 with King Jehoram and went through the destruction of the Second Temple which is where our target is this time for historical analysis. That occurred in 587, but some will say 586 by the way, that is another part of the controversy but I think we can show that it’s 587 BCE.
• Jeremiah and Ezekiel used non-accession dating for the kings in the Southern Kingdom with the exception of Nebuchadnezzar of course.

If we were to compare the accession versus the non-accession, it’s a simple comparison. The accession dating year has the year zero labeled as accession and non-accession dating is labeled year one.

You’ll see the difference when you look at this. If you don’t know that there is an underlying method of calendar keeping with these kings, it is easy to mix up the third year of one with the third year of another when indeed it might be the fourth year of another. It isn’t important that you be too concerned about this other than being aware of it. It’s really the only way that you are able to reconcile these different kingdoms from the North and South along with the adversaries that they faced. That would include the Assyrians, the Egyptians and the Babylonians although today our focus will be Egypt and Babylon.

Calendar Timeline Integrity
Nisan Versus Tishri Calendar

• Nisan Calendar (Beginning of months)
• Northern Kingdom ^{House of Israel} – regnal anniversary counted from Nisan to Nisan
• Babylonian regnal years counted from Nisan to Nisan in secular historical documents
• Nisan regnal calendar dating used to reconcile dates for Nebuchadnezzar II
  Including 2 Kings, Jeremiah and Daniel

The other part that goes along with the calendar integrity is to know that the start month could be Nisan or Tishri and that is well documented and catalogued also. The Northern Kingdom, or the House of Israel, counted their regnal anniversaries from Nisan to Nisan. The Babylonian also counted that way. The Nisan regnal calendar dating is used to reconcile the dates for Nebuchadnezzar II who is the reigning king in Babylon that we will be comparing today. We see the evidence of this included in 2 Kings, Jeremiah and Daniel.

The Tishri calendar, in contrast, going from the beginning of the year or the seventh month was used by the Southern Kingdom, or the House of Judah. The anniversary is counted from Tishri to Tishri and followed the United Monarchy dating system that we looked at last time under David and Solomon. I gave you a good example in Solomon and how he was using the counting methodology from Tishri and that seems to be what followed into the Southern Kingdom.

Calendar Timeline Integrity
Co-Regency

• Simultaneous rule of two monarchs, leaders or emperors
  Example – a son may be made co-regent during reign of the father
  The reign is counted in terms of the father and of the son

There are a couple of other items that I want to cover in reality, for the rest of the presentations in this series. I might remind you all during the presentation that these things are there, but there is something called co-regency and it is the simultaneous rule of two monarch leaders or emperors. An example may be a son that is made a co-regent during the reign of his father and that reign with his father is counted in terms of the father and son.

There is an example of it in 2 Kings 8:

And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel ^{Northern Kingdom,} Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign.
(2Ki 8:16 KJV)

We are comparing the Northern Kingdom with Jehoshaphat which is the Southern Kingdom. We have competing names here, we have Joram and Jehoram and they are two different guys. Then we have the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, but the point of it is that Jehoshaphat and his son reigned simultaneously and Jehoshaphat appointed Jehoram as a co-regent the year he went off to battle with Ahab at Ramoth Gilead. In the event that something went wrong, there was a continuity of leadership.

There is an excellent New Testament example about the reign of Emperor Tiberius that follows this same guideline for co-regency. Tiberius was the co-regent with Emperor Augustus who was the first Roman emperor and that co-regency actually started in 12 CE. Augustus was still alive for two more years. However, Tiberius’ exclusive reign started in 14 CE. You see there is a two or three year 12 – 13 – 14, a two to three year overlap.

We see evidence of it in several different places but one example that I use is according to Suetonius that eh declaration of his “co-Princeps “ took place in the year 12 CE, after Tiberius’ return from Germania. You can find ample evidence of this if you go look. (Wikipedia – Heir to Augustus reference Riding for Caesar: The Roman Emperors’’ Horse guards by Michael Speidel)

In the scripture, the example that we see in Luke 3 says:

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of YHWH came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. (Luk 3:1-2 KJV)

15^th year – baseline for Yahushua’s ministry

The point of this for this discussion is the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, what was it counted from 12 CE or 14 CE? We will get into this you will see that the evidence that we see is that he was counting the fifteen years from 12 CE during his co-regency with Augustus. We will get into the timeline of this in the fifth part of the presentation series which is Yahushua’s declaration of Jubilee in Luke 4:18.

Calendar Timeline Integrity
Other Considerations

• Hebrew Civil Calendar and Gregorian Calendar Synchronization
  Hebrew calendar starts in Tishri ^{7th month}
  Gregorian calendar starts in January ^{1st month}
  Tishri normally falls in September/October on the Gregorian calendar
  Offset is accounted for in this presentation
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_Judah
• Intercalation = insert a day, month, year into a calendar
  The 50^th year Jubilee is intercalated into calendar and is a separate, standalone 50^th year (not combined with year 1 or 49)
• Calendar Calculators
  Calculators used to convert Gregorian to Julian dates
  10 day correction in 1582
  http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/
• Converting Gregorian to Hebrew dates prior to 1 CE not considered reliable and accurate conversions
• Calendar calculators used for:
  Passover Dates – Abib 1 – Wednesday Options
• Calendar Calculators not used elsewhere in this project

Other considerations are that the Hebrew civil calendar and the Gregorian calendar have to be synchronized and they are really different breeds of calendar. As I mentioned, the Hebrew calendar is a lunar based calendar and the Gregorian is solar based. The Hebrew calendar starts in Tishri which is the seventh month, and the Gregorian starts in January which is the first month.

Obviously, the beginning of each month is totally variable depending upon the new moon. Tishri normally falls in September/October timeframe on the Gregorian calendar. We have taken care to make sure that the offsets for this are handled in this presentation.

Intercalation is another item that we’ve already talked about and gone through. It is inserting a day, month or year into a calendar and the term intercalate, I have used a number of times regarding the 50^th year Jubilee and how it is an intercalated 50^th year into the calendar as a separate and standalone 50^th year, not included in year one or 49 of the cycle.

Calendar calculators particularly in Part 5 of the presentations are used to determine the new moons and the conversion to the Gregorian from another complication which is the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar was used by the Romans and it was in place until 1582 CE.

The problem with it was because it was deficit by a quarter day or so every year so the seasons had a tendency to drift. By 1582 they made a ten day correction to line up with what became King Gregory’s calendar and the Julian calendar then was abandoned.

Society today and most of the world uses the Gregorian calendar. I would also state that the Gregorian calendar had as its intent to line up Easter on Easter Sunday rather than use the Passover on the 14^th of Nisan or Abib.

There are a lot to check out on the calendar scene and again lots of controversy. We have used calendar calculators, not in this particular presentation but in ones coming up. With that bit of prologue and background, we are going to jump into the analysis of Ezekiel’s Jubilee proclamation and the date that we have seen it be provable and documented.

Ezekiel Jubilee
574 – 573 BCE
Geo-political Precursor Events

In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was captured, on the very same day the hand of YHWH was upon me; and He took me there.
(Eze 40:1 NKJV)

We will repeat this scripture some number of times over the next several sessions. There are a couple of items that I want to draw your attention to as we start. The first item is “in the twenty fifth year of our captivity”, whatever date Ezekiel is proclaiming Ezekiel 40 to be, we know that it’s the 25^th year of our captivity, and we also know it’s at the beginning of the year. We also know it’s on the 10^th day of the month, and the 14^th year after the city was captured.

I remind you that the 25^th year and the 14^th year after the city was captured are important. If we can inner-lock those dates and prove that they are sequentially correct, we should be able to deduce from that, that the date that Ezekiel was making this proclamation in Ezekiel 40 is a certain given date. That is what we are intending to start out to do. We are going to be looking, not with a magnifier quite yet at the actual dates of things. I will mention them along the way in the next two sessions after this when we look at the dates a lot more closely.

This time we are going to get our arms around what was going on in the geo-political realm and the precursor events that lead to Ezekiel chapter 40. We will start with the History in a period of time on this kings and prophets timeline as shown on the next page.

We are going to zero in to the time starting with Josiah and his sons, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah. Jehoiachin was the son of Jehoiakim so Josiah was his grandfather. We will detail that shortly. We are also going to be looking at scriptures from Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel and of course Nebuchadnezzar will be the main Babylonian king that we will focus on along with Pharaoh Necho during this period of time.

We are going to look at how all of this stitches together. The first thing I would like to talk about is the history of Josiah’s sons.

And the sons of Josiah were, the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum. (1Ch 3:15 KJV)

I have put all of these on a table so you could have a mind’s eye view and put them in order of their reign, not by order of their birth. The order of their birth has some controversy about it and somewhat discrepancy particularly Zedekiah’s birth and when it was. We aren’t going to be concerned about that here.

We see that the first born was Johanan and it turns out that apparently he had no reign, we don’t know much about him, there is very little scripture and this may be the only representation of Johanan right here. He wasn’t a reigning king as one of Josiah’s sons. We’re taking Josiah as the benchmark for all of this because all of the players during the downfall of the Southern Kingdom. The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem had one of these kings, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah during that period of time.

Josiah’s death started a series of events. Josiah’s reign was a reformer if you recall so back in 723 BCE he had a reform program and it was fundamentally too little too late.

YHWH gave the Southern Kingdom some breathing room and allowed them to repair the idol worship practices that were involved. Josiah tore all of that down and repaired the Temple, read the book of the law and so forth, but it was too little too late. The sins of the nation were too great and they just continued on after Josiah’s death. The leadership, as you will see, did not do what was right in YHWH’s eye.

The first king after Josiah’s death in 609 BCE is Shallum and we will find that all of these kings have a birth name, but they also have an alternative name. The alternative name in this case was picked by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt; it was changed from Shallum to Jehoahaz.
Jeremiah 22 says:

For thus saith YHWH touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more: (Jer 22:11 KJV)

Jeremiah is prophesying that Shallum is going to be taken out and is not going to last long. It turns out that he only lasted 3 months. He came into power at the death of Josiah in 609 and 3 months later he was taken out. We will get to the details of that but I just want to give you the highlights right now.

Jehoiakim was the next in line, and he reigned from 609 to 598 BCE, an eleven year reign. Jehoiakim’s name was changed and made king by Pharaoh Necho.

Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of YHWH his Elohim.
(2Ch 36:5 KJV)

All of these kings did that which was evil and there was no righteousness in the land at this point in time.

And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim ^Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there. And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaohnechoh. (2Ki 23:34-35 KJV)

Not much of a legacy to be proud of here with Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim had a son named Jehoiachin. Jehoiachin actually has three names Jehoiachin, Jechoniah, and Coniah.

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother’s name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. (2Ki 24:8 KJV)

This was another three month king just like Shallum or Jehoahaz.

The final son of Josiah was King Zedekiah; his birth name was Mattaniah and was changed by Nebuchadnezzar.

And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father’s brother ^{referring to Jehoiachin’s uncle} king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah. (2Ki 24:17 KJV)
Mattaniah was Eliakim’s brother

If you aren’t careful in reading this, Mattaniah replaced Jehoiachin. You may get confused about who is the brother, and who isn’t. Mattaniah talking about his father’s brother is referring to Jehoiachin’s uncle. We will see that in a couple of places. Keep in mind that Jehoiachin is the grandson, not a son of Josiah.

Ezekiel Jubilee
Background

• Fall of Judah (Southern Kingdom)
• Prophetic warnings:
  Micah – wrote about the Northern and Southern Kingdoms c. 737 BCE
• From Judah
  Jeremiah
  Habakkuk
  Zephaniah
• From Babylon
  Ezekiel
  Daniel

The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith YHWH Elohim.
(Eze 22:29-31 KJV)

This is a prophetic view from Ezekiel. Ezekiel and Jeremiah both prophesied of what was ultimately going to happen to this land. We will see that Ezekiel was in captivity for the most of his time in writing the book of Ezekiel in contrast to Jeremiah. Jeremiah was actually living in and around the area of Jerusalem during all of these events. Ezekiel is already in captivity as he writes, and Jeremiah was living and seeing what was happening on the ground in the City of Jerusalem and the surrounding area.

There are a number of prophetic warnings and writings what was about to happen to the Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom was warned in advance too but they went into captivity some 130 years before the downfall of the Southern Kingdom.

The prophet Micah wrote about the North and the South way back in 737 BCE so the downfall of the North and South Kingdoms of Israel wasn’t something that happened in a short period of time. It started to be talked about from the prophetic viewpoint for over a hundred and fifty years or so.

From Judah the Southern Kingdom, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah were the prophets, while Ezekiel and Daniel were in Babylon very early on. Ezekiel’s warning ahead that things are going to get bad, you have oppressed the poor, you guys are robbers and doing your own thing and you have turned your face from YHWH. Better straighten up and if you don’t, the message is that you are going into captivity.

Ezekiel Jubilee
Geo-political Events

Neo-Babylonian Empire rises
AKA Chaldean Empire
626 – 529 BCE
Viewed Assyrians as enemies

• Egypt threatened by Babylonian imperialism
  Pharaoh Necho II first campaign to Carchemish and Harran in 609 BCE
  Aligned with fading Assyrians
  Required transit through Israel
  Josiah resisted – resulted in Battle at Megiddo
  Josiah killed

During this period of time the Neo-Babylonian Empire, also known as the Chaldean Empire is rising. Either term are used interchangeably in this presentation. The Babylonian Empire reigned supreme from 26 to 529 BCE, a little over a hundred years. Their main adversary was the Assyrians who were in power before the Babylonians. Sennicherib, Tiglath Pileser, and Sargon were the world rulers in the 700 BCE timeframe and they started to have their downfall as the Babylonian Empire started to rise. Some of the Syrian forces were still left, and how Pharaoh Necho of Egypt thought he could partner with them and overthrow Babylon which was seen as a threat to the entire world at this point.

Egypt was threatened by all of this and this Babylonian imperialism. And Pharaoh Necho II (I will refer to him as Necho, and not use the II term.) Necho had a campaign to a place called Carchemish and Harran in 609 BCE and this is well documented in the secular historical record. There doesn’t seem to be much controversy about how and when this event happened.

Necho aligned with the fading Assyrians, there were still some strongholds that the Assyrians held and the problem was that Pharaoh Necho had to transit his forces through Israel in order to get up to Carchemish and Harran which is circled on the map. The problem that it created was that Josiah didn’t like it and also the threat of Egypt at this point so he wasn’t pro-Egyptian apparently so he resisted. That resulted in the Battle at Megiddo where Josiah was killed. That is what transpired when Josiah was actually killed and it’s known that benchmark is 609 BCE.

2 Kings tells us a little about this:

In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria ^{now under Babylonian authority} to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. (2Ki 23:29 KJV)

Necho went against the king of Babylon who had conquered Assyrian monarchy and called himself king of it
Likely Nabopolassar – father of crown prince Nebuchadnezzar II

If you just read this on the surface, you see that Necho went up against the king of Assyria. Assyria had already fallen and when you look a little deeper into this, what you see is that the Assyrians are now under Babylonian authority. Necho was really going up against the King of Babylon who had conquered the Assyrian monarchy and the Babylonian monarchy called himself the King of Assyria. The evidence is sketchy of who this is, and I don’t know if it is clearly stated anywhere that I have seen. It is likely Nabopolassar who was the King of Babylon during this period of time. If you have researched your history, you know that Nabopolassar is the father of Crown Prince Nebuchadnezzar II. This would all fit but I would say that it’s not provable that it is Nabopolassar but it is likely that’s who Pharaoh Necho is going up against.

In Josephus Antiquities we see a similar account:

Now Neco, king of Egypt, raised an army, and marched to the river Euphrates, in order to fight with the Medes and Babylonians, who had overthrown the dominion of the Assyrians, for he had a desire to reign over Asia. Now when he was come to the city Mendes, which belonged to the kingdom of Josiah, he ^Josiah brought an army to hinder him from passing through his own country, in his expedition against the Medes.
(Jos Ant 10.5.1)

The Medes were also partnered with the Babylonians and that was part of the reason the Medes and the Babylonians were capable because together they had a strong army. They were able to overthrow the Assyrians.

If you do some homework, you will also find that the city of Mendes seems to be somewhat confusion. I’m not sure if there was another Mendes that I can’t seem to find in the territory of the Southern Kingdom, but Mendes is actually known to be on the Nile Delta near the Mediterranean Sea. I don’t think Josiah controlled that far down but maybe he did. In any case, if you look into this, there is a question about Mendes in this account from Josephus. The end result was that Josiah was killed.

Ezekiel Jubilee
Geo-Political Events

• Jehoahaz anointed King
• Succeeded his father Josiah
• Necho and Assyrian remnant fail at siege of Harran – 609 BCE
• Southern Kingdom – Judah falls under Egyptian control/influence
• Jehoahaz deposed by Necho
• Necho installs Jehoiakim
  Vassal king – 609 – 598 BCE
  11 year reign
  Loyalty to Egyptians
  Pays heavy tribute ^3.6M
  Unrighteous king
  incest, murder, property theft,
  Burns Jeremiahs scroll – Jer 36

Josiah being killed had a replacement and Jehoahaz his son was anointed King. One of the problems for Necho was that Necho and the Assyrian remnant were fighting the Babylonians and failed at the siege of Harran at this time in 609 BCE. That failure didn’t mean that he wouldn’t try again. We will see how that comes out.

At this point, the Southern Kingdom of Judah falls under the vassal kingship and rulership of the Egyptian control and influence even though the Southern Kingdom has its own King Jehoahaz who is effectively powerless. Necho is the one that is pulling all of the strings and making all of the decisions and what we will see is that Jehoahaz is going to be deposed by Necho. Necho is going to put a new guy in place.

Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of YHWH, according to all that his fathers had done. And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold. (2Ki 23:31-33 KJV)

I will mention that Riblah is up north of the land of Israel, I will detail that in another account. This location of Riblah was a military command center for Necho and Jehoahaz was deposed and installs a new king which is Jehoiakim.

And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaohnechoh. Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the YHWH, according to all that his fathers had done. (2Ki 23:35-37 KJV)

He was following the footsteps of his brother, and the fact that he reigned for 11 years is important. In Jeremiah 36 we see an account that is interesting because this guy Jehoiakim is a real interesting king. He didn’t like to listen to Jeremiah, sometimes he did, but here is an account when he didn’t listen very well, he was upset. Keep in mind what Jeremiah’s message was to Jehoiakim, and that was whatever you do isn’t going to matter because you are going to go into captivity. The best thing to do would be to surrender to the Babylonians and become a captive of Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah said that if you do that, Jehoiakim, everything will work out okay for you. That didn’t go over very well if you are the King of Judah, so he wanted to fight and do whatever he could to not go into captivity. Of course, that was YHWH’s will and Jeremiah’s prophecy that it was going to be that way and ultimately it was.

Necho installs Jehoiakim and he’s a vassal king for eleven years from 609 to 598 BCE. Certainly in the beginning, his loyalty was to the Egyptians, and he paid a heavy tribute. It turns out that a talent of gold and a hundred talents of silver were worth 3.6 million dollars in today’s gold and silver prices if a talent is 75 pounds, and it may be more upwards of 100. This was a heavy tax burden that he had to pay. Jehoiakim was an unrighteous king. He did that which was evil in the sight of YHWH and the reason that was said is that Jehoiakim was incestuous, a murderer, liked to steal the property from the Israelites and divert it to his own attention. He is the one that burned the scroll of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 36.

So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it ^{Jeremiah’s prophecy} in the ears of the king ^Jehoiakim, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king. Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
(Jer 36:21-23 KJV)

That didn’t set well with YHWH. Jeremiah ended up writing the same scroll again as the account goes. This guy Jehoiakim was a real piece of work to say the least.

Ezekiel Jubilee
Geo-Political Events

• Daniel taken captive – 606 BCE
  1^st siege and 1^st deportation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar
• Daniel and elite taken captive
• 3^rd year reign of Jehoiakim
• Nebuchadnezzar is king
• Warning to Judah – 605 BCE
  4^th year of Jehoiakim ^{non-accession}
  1^st year of Nebuchadnezzar
• Josiah reign 641 – 609 BCE
  641 – 13 – 23 = 605 BCE

It was at this period of time that Daniel was taken captive in 606 BCE. You will start seeing this terminology “1^st siege”, “1^st deportation”, “2^nd siege”, “2^nd deportation”, and so forth.

It turns out how I’ve been able to catalogue this is that there were three separate sieges of Jerusalem during this downfall period and there were six deportations. This was a tough time if you lived in Jerusalem at this time. You had the enemy at your doorstep a lot and people were being taken captives and being exiled into the land of Babylon.

Here is the account in Daniel chapter 1.

In the third year ^{non-accession dating} of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon ^{accession dating year 0-1} unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And YHWH gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of Elohim: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god… And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes….Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: (Dan 1:1-6 KJV)

There are a couple of points about this and one is to note that it’s the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, and also note that Nebuchadnezzar is the reigning king of Babylon. Also note that Nebuchadnezzar took children of Israel of the king’s seed and of the princes. This would have been Josiah’s offspring so we know who the players are in Josiah’s offspring are. This is a clue whose father Daniel was. This is an interesting insight into who Daniel’s family was and I take it that these are his brothers that were taken with him.

There was a warning to Judah in the Book of Jeremiah one year later. It connects with this event in Daniel.

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 Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; The which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, From the thirteenth year of Josiah ^{starting in 641 BCE} the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of YHWH hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. (Jer 25:1-3 KJV)

Jeremiah is reminding them that this has been an on-going mantra and a prophecy of his, but they wouldn’t listen. Note what is in this particular scripture, that it’s the fourth year of Jehoiakim, but it’s the first year of Nebuchadnezzar. If it’s the fourth year of Jehoiakim and the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, there is nothing less than the first year of Nebuchadnezzar unless you understand accession dating. What you find from this is that Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon in the account in Daniel 1 but that would have had to have been his accession year which was counted as his zero year.

In fact, that lines up on this inner-link timeline that we ultimately will produce. It’s an interesting insight, there isn’t a mistake in Daniel, nor is there in Jeremiah. These two events line up perfectly that the third year and the fourth year of Jehoiakim lines up with the accession year and the first year of Nebuchadnezzar.

There is another interesting clue in Jeremiah 25 for a timeline; he says that since the time of Josiah, which started in 641 BCE that there was a 13 year period and a 23 year period that got them to the point he is talking to right now. If you subtract that all out, 641 – 13 – 23 you come to 605 BCE which is when this warning was made. 605 should line up with the 4^th year of Jehoiakim and the 1^st year of Nebuchadnezzar. The insight in some of these chronologies that are built into the scripture, we see that the accuracy is astounding that YHWH has put this here for us to unfold.

The Septuagint version of Jeremiah 25:3 cf. LXX – In the thirteenth year of Josias, son of Amos, king of Juda, even until this day for three and twenty years, I have both spoken to you, rising early and speaking, (Jer 25:3 Brenton)

Ezekiel Jubilee
Geo-Political Events

Necho defeated at Carchemish – 605 BCE
4^th year Jehoiakim 609 – 598 BCE
1^st year of Nebuchadnezzar from Jer 25

There is another event at Carchemish and again, Necho is defeated at Carchemish in 605, this is not the end of Carchemish battling but it is a major battle and it really sets the Egyptians back in their foreign policy. We will note that Carchemish is encircled near Harran, and of course the activity that goes along with this means that there is a lot of military troops running through the main highways and roads in the land of Israel, particularly the Southern Kingdom.

The word of YHWH which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles; Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaohnecho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim ^{non-accession} the son of Josiah king of Judah. (Jer 46:1-2 KJV)

This battle talked about is the fourth year of Jehoiakim that was a non-accession dating procedure, so again we have a good pin point and a time when this event at Carchemish happened at the same time as the fourth year of Jehoiakim.

Josephus weighs in on this also.

NOW in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, one whose name was Nebuchadnezzar took the government over the Babylonians, who at the same time went up with a great army to the city of Carchemish, which was at Euphrates, upon a resolution he had taken to fight with Neco king of Egypt, under whom all Syria then was. And when Necho understood the intention of the king of Babylon, and that this expedition was made against him, he did not despise his attempt, but made haste with a great band of men to Euphrates to defend himself from Nebuchadnezzar; and when they had joined battle, he was beaten, and lost many ten thousands (of his soldiers) in the battle. So the king of Babylon passed over Euphrates, and took all Syria, as far as Pelusium, excepting Judea. (Jos Ant 10.6.1)

It’s an interesting insight from Josephus. Necho was controlling all of Syria, and Syria was north of Israel, so Necho had his hand in what was going on in this geography.

Josephus makes it known that Necho wanted to go fight Nebuchadnezzar. If you look and find where Pulusium is, you see it’s on the edge of northern Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar must have chased Necho all the way back that far, between these territories is Judah in the Southern Kingdom. Notice that Judah was excepted at this point, but not for long.

Ezekiel Jubilee
Geo-Political Events

• Egyptian defeat sets up Neo-Babylonian Empire – 605 BCE
  This is a major defeat and again, Josephus talks about this.
• Jehoiakim flips his allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar
  Rules as a vassal of Babylon
• Nebuchadnezzar invades Egypt
  Babylonians repulsed – 601 BCE
  Undermines Babylonian imperialism
  Jehoiakim flips allegiance to the Egyptians – stops tribute 598 BCE
  Judea ruled as vassal of Egypt
  Conflicted foreign policy
  Nebuchadnezzar regroups
• Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem – 598-597 BCE
  2^nd siege, 2^nd deportation 598 BCE
  Jehoiakim captured
  Jeremiah’s prophecy

But when Nebuchadnezzar had already reigned four years which was the eighth of Jehoiakim’s government over the Hebrews, the king of Babylon made an expedition with mighty forces against the Jews, and required tribute of Jehoiakim, and threatened upon his refusal to make war against him. He ^Jehoiakim was affrighted at his threatening, and bought his peace with money, and brought the tribute he was ordered to bring for three years. But on the third year ^{598 BCE}, upon hearing that the king of the Babylonians made an expedition against the Egyptians, he did not pay his tribute; yet was he disappointed of his hope, for the Egyptians durst not fight ^{to a victory} at this time….the prophet Jeremiah foretold every day, how vainly they relied on their hopes from Egypt, and how the city ^Jerusalem would be overthrown.
(Jos Ant 10.6.1-2)

So Jehoiakim flips his allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar, these probably aren’t smart moves, you are either dedicated to your alliance or not. Jehoiakim attitude was how the wind blew is where he would pay his tribute. He ends up ruling as a vassal of Babylon now and he pays tribute to Babylon. Of course Nebuchadnezzar likes that, he likes the income stream. In 2 Kings it says:

In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him. (2Ki 24:1 KJV)

You can see that this isn’t going to last long, and Nebuchadnezzar won’t like it when he gets turned against. Nebuchadnezzar invades Egypt and the Babylonians are repulsed in 601. The Egyptians seem to be strong on their home turf but they can’t carry the battle outside, away from their home turf.

All of this undermines the Babylonian Imperialism; Nebuchadnezzar had a grand view of being the king of all of this. Jehoiakim, at this point flips allegiance to the Egyptians and stops paying tribute around 598 BCE, so you see he’s flipping around here. Obviously, this is conflicted foreign policy; Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t like it and takes the time to regroup.

Nebuchadnezzar, as a result of this flip in foreign policy of Jehoiakim lays siege to Jerusalem in 598/597 BCE and we see that in 2 Chronicles

Against him ^Jehoiakim came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon ^{but he didn’t make it}, Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of YHWH to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon. (2Ch 36:5-7 KJV)

On the surface, if you just read this you would think well, Jehoiakim went to Babylon in fetters. There is more to the story, and this ends up being a second siege and second deportation. Jehoiakim is captured obviously, but there is a prophecy in Jeremiah that we should read, there is a controversy about it, but I don’t think there is when you think about it and examine it, the controversy really pans out to be much.

The controversy is that Jehoiakim died in chains before he was carried away. This scripture in Jeremiah says he was going to be buried at Jerusalem so that is the conflict. If he was buried at Jerusalem how could he be buried there if he was carried away to Babylon?

He ^Jehoiakim shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. (Jer 22:19 KJV)

Seems clear what was going to be the end of him. He was going to be cast beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel Jubilee
Geo-Political Events

• Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem – 598-597 BCE
  Jehoiakim died – 598 BCE
  Jehoiachin anointed king by Nebuchadnezzar
  Son of Jehoiakim
  Reigned 3 months and 10 days
  Dec 9, 598 – Mar 15, 597 BCE
  Dethroned by Nebuchadnezzar
• Ezekiel taken to Babylon
• Jehoichin surrenders and is taken captive
  3^rd deportation – 597 BCE
  High profile elites taken
  Imprisoned in Babylon 36 years
  Released by Evil-Merodach (2 Ki 25:27-30)
• Ezekiel lives with exiled captives
  provides dating benchmark for all Ezekiel prophesies
• Starts 25 year count to Eze 40:1

The result of that was that Nebuchadnezzar was going to carry Jehoiakim to Babylon but he didn’t make it. We see in Josephus the clarity of this, and yes, Jehoiakim died in 598 and Jehoiachin is anointed king after him. This account in Antiquities clarifies the rest of the story.

Now, a little time afterwards, the king of Babylon made an expedition against Jehoiakim, whom he received (into the city) and this out of fear of the foregoing predictions of this prophet ^Jeremiah, as supposing he should suffer nothing that was terrible, because he neither shut the gates, nor fought against him; yet when he was come into the city, he did not observe the covenants he ^{Nebuchadnezzar} had made, but he slew such as were in the flower of their age, and such as were of the greatest dignity, together with their king Jehoiakim, ^{Nebuchadnezzar killed him there} whom he commanded to be thrown before the walls, without any burial ^{no scriptural reference}; and made his son Jehoiachin king of the country, and of the city; he also took the principal persons in dignity for captives, three thousand in number, and led them away to Babylon; among which was the prophet Ezekiel, who was then but young. And this was the end of King Jehoiakim, when he had lived thirty-six years, and of them reigned eleven. But Jehoiachin succeeded him in the kingdom, whose mother’s name was Nehushta…he reigned three months and ten days.
(Jos Ant 10.6.3)

Three months again is the reign of Jehoiachin, very similar to what would have been his uncle Jehoahaz, when we first started this account. He was the first king after Josiah’s death. Jehoiachin is anointed and you also see the disposition of Jehoiakim that the scriptures really do line up with each other as well as the historical record so it’s amazing that Josephus has these little extra clues that help us. It also doesn’t create any problem with the timeline integrity.

Jehoiachin is in and only reigns three months, but those three months are very accurately known from the Gregorian calendar, Dec 9, 598 to March 15, 597 BCE, there seems to be quite a bit of evidence in the Babylonian Chronicles and so forth that these dates are good.

Ultimately, we will see that Jehoiachin also is going to be dethroned by Nebuchadnezzar. One of the interesting comments that Josephus makes is that Ezekiel was taken into captivity at this point in time. When you study the Book of Ezekiel, you see and know that he is in captivity, he never says exactly when he is taken, but it’s easy to build the case by just reading Ezekiel that indeed he was taken. He was taken into captivity along with Jehoiachin at approximately the same time, maybe a couple of months different but approximate.

Jehoiachin surrenders three months later, and is taken captive and there is a third deportation at this time. The high profile elites are taken and imprisoned, Jehoiachin is imprisoned in Babylon for 36 years, ultimately released by Evil-Merodach. Evil was probably and evil guy but I think his Babylonian name actually was Amel Merodach and it translates out to Evil in English. Read in 2 Kings about this.

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months…And he did that which was evil in the sight of YHWH, according to all that his father had done. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants did besiege it. And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers ^surrendered: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of YHWH, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of YHWH, as YHWH had said. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land. And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. (2Ki 24:8-15 KJV)

“And the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign” Some people try to make the case that it’s the eighth year of Jehoiachin’s reign, but that can’t be. It is the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign because Jehoiachin only reigned three months.

There are a couple of things, Jehoiachin went to captivity, he was there, and there is more about him, and reading ahead in 2 Kings 25. It ends up that he gets freed by Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Evil Merodach.

And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison; And he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon; And changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life. And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life. (2Ki 25:27-30 KJV)

Amel Merodach released him and gave him a good end of life. I suspect it’s because he surrendered, he didn’t fight. There is a lot in Ezekiel that parallels his surrender and Ezekiel is living with the exiles also, and I think it’s a fair conclusion in what we find, that the dating benchmarks that you see in Ezekiel are all based on this captivity. Ezekiel and Jehoiachin’s captivity, and Jehoiachin’s captivity is dated from the same period of time. We saw Ezekiel apparently went into captivity at the beginning of Jehoiachin’s three month reign and three months later Chin was taken into captivity. That dating benchmark is what Ezekiel uses for the terminology that he does an excellent calendar job of telling you when things happen. Ezekiel chapter 1 starts out, and clearly he is stating it in the first chapter:

In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, The word of YHWH came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of YHWH was there upon him.
(Eze 1:2-3 KJV)

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of YHWH Elohim fell there upon me. (Eze 8:1 KJV)

And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of YHWH, and sat before me.
(Eze 20:1 KJV)

There are a number of places that this similar reference is made of the year of captivity, or just the year and it’s assumed that he’s talking about the same dating timeline from captivity. I think the case is easy to make that the sixth year and the seventh year is in the same format and protocol that is here in the dating in the first chapter. That means the dating from captivity. It pans out that way when you put the timeline together and it all adds together although it doesn’t say that clearly anywhere else you can get this by putting all of this together in a timeline. It is useful to know that, but what is important about this also is that we started with Ezekiel chapter 40 and it says:

In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of YHWH was upon me, and brought me thither. (Eze 40:1 KJV)

Remember I told you there were two things here, the 25^th year of our captivity and the 14^th year after the city was captured. The 25^th year of our captivity at the beginning of the year, says when the event in Ezekiel 40 is happening. It’s the 25^th year of our captivity. If we know that Jehoiachin started the captivity and this is the beginning of year one, and if we know when this event happened in the history of the Southern Kingdom, we have a way to count 25 years to get a precise mark on the calendar of when the event in Ezekiel 40 happened. It turns out that is the case, so just know that one of the parameters, the 25 year count, is specified here, and this is when it was beginning to be counted from.

I would mention just as a conclusion on this chart that if you read 2 Chronicles 36:9, you see a conflict. 2 Chronicles 36 says:

Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, (2Ch 36:9 KJV)

In contrast to:

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, (2Ki 24:8 KJV)

This is one of the few, I would say well known scribal errors and it’s easy to disprove that he was eight years old because in 1 Chronicles chapter 3 it says that Jehoiachin had sons.

And the sons of Jeconiah; Assir, Salathiel his son, (1Ch 3:17 KJV)

1 Chronicles 3 is the genealogy of David and Jehoiachin had sons and the sons of Jechoniah, and again, Jechoniah, Coniah, and Jehoiachin are all the same guy. More than likely this is easily proven as being a scribal error, that eight years was really 18 and 2 Kings is indeed correct.

Ezekiel Jubilee
Geo-Political Events

• Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem – 598 – 597 BCE
  Zedekiah made king by Nebuchadnezzar

Going on from here, after Jehoiachin, Zedekiah was made king by Nebuchadnezzar. You see the influence Nebuchadnezzar has had.

And when the year was expired ^{H8666=the return of the year, recurrence (of time or place)}, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him ^Jehoiachin to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of YHWH, and made Zedekiah his ^{LXX – fathers} brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of YHWH his Elohim, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of YHWH. And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by Elohim: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto YHWH Elohim of Israel. (2Ch 36:10-13 KJV)

King Nebuchadnezzar had him swear his allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar and then he broke that promise. So you can see this is not going to end well. Zedekiah is the last king here and we will see that Zedekiah reigned when we develop the timeline that he reigned from 597 to 587 BCE. Again, his original name was Mattaniah which was changed by Nebuchadnezzar. He will succeed his nephew, Jehoiachin. He had previously promised allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar and then broke his promise. Jeremiah had been coaching him and telling him what was going to happen but Jeremiah was not successful. Certainly, as we have already stated, Zedekiah is the last king of the Southern Kingdom. Jeremiah 37 gives us a little more on this:

And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah ^Jehoiachin the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of YHWH, which he spake by the prophet Jeremiah. (Jer 37:1-2 KJV) Who is writing this.

Ezekiel Jubilee
Geo-Political Events

• Zedekiah seeks alliance with Egypt
  Jeremiah advises Zedekiah
  City will fall to the Chaldeans
• Alliance with Egypt fails
• Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem – 590 – 587 BCE
  3^rd siege – 4^th and 5^th deportation
• Zedekiah flees and is captured
• Zedekiah exiled to Babylon
• Jerusalem razed
  Temple destroyed
  Inhabitants exiled
  Poor remain as farmers
  19^th year of Nebuchadnezzar
  Starts 14 year count from when city was captured

When you are desperate you go to your old friends, and that is what Zedekiah tried to do. He tried to seek an alliance with Egypt and Jeremiah 37 says:

Then Pharaoh’s army was come forth out of Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem. Then came the word of YHWH unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith YHWH, the Elohim of Israel; Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to enquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land. And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire. (Jer 37:5-8 KJV)

Pharaoh’s army was going to help but the Chaldeans got wind of it and went after the Egyptians before they could arrive. These kings are a piece of work, all of them; the king would go to enquire of Jeremiah because Jeremiah was known to be a prophet. If the word that came back was good, it was fine, but if it didn’t come back Jeremiah was actually put in prison over what he told the king. Jeremiah is telling the king that Pharaoh’s army which has come forth to help you shall return to Egypt. It wasn’t a good message to tell the good king Zedekiah, but Jeremiah advises Zedekiah and the city walls were going to fall to the Chaldeans and that is exactly what happened.

The Egyptian alliance fails; Nebuchadnezzar comes back and besieges Jerusalem one last grand time. It lasted some 30 months, and it started in December of 590 BCE and went through the early spring of April/May timeframe of 587. It will be the third siege but it will also include what looks like a 4^th and 5^th deportation. We will see that Zedekiah flees and is captured.

And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign ^Zedekiah, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about. And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him. So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah ^{Syria/Lebanon border}; and they gave judgment upon him.
(2Ki 25:1-6 KJV)

Zedekiah flees and is captured, and notice that Nebuchadnezzar has set up his command center in Riblah. If you recall early in this presentation that Pharaoh Necho had his command center there, so it swapped hands. Apparently, Riblah is a particularly good location for a military command center. There are natural resources around including water, food is available, there are orchards and it’s on the main interstate highway between these countries involved. Riblah is mentioned here and it’s north of Jerusalem, and the land of Israel at the Syrian Lebanon border. It is a known tell location today. There is another city next to it called Riblee, I’m sure that is a continuation of the original Riblah.

Zedekiah ends up getting exiled to Babylon and Josephus weighs in on this.

He ^{Nebuchadnezzar} also reproached him for his ingratitude, that when he ^Zedekiah had received the kingdom from him ^{Nebuchadnezzar}, who had taken it from Jehoiachin, and given it to him ^Zedekiah, he had made use of the power he ^{Nebuchadnezzar} gave him against him that gave it; “but” said he, “Yah is great, who hated that conduct of thine, and hath brought the under us ^{the Chaldeans}.” And when he had used these words to Zedekiah, he commanded his sons and his friends to be slain, while Zedekiah and the rest of the captains looked on; after which he put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him, and carried him to Babylon. And these things happened to him as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold to him, that he should be caught, and brought before the king of Babylon, and should speak to him face to face, and should see his eyes with his own eyes; and thus far did Jeremiah prophesy. But he was also made blind, and brought to Babylon, but did not see it, according to the prediction of Ezekiel 3:1-27. (Jos Ant 10.8.2)

Nebuchadnezzar knew Yah obviously; he chews out Zedekiah for his ingratitude. When you put some of these pieces together you see who is in Babylon at this point as becoming a number two person. Daniel was there, so Nebuchadnezzar knew about Yah, and knew his name. There is a scripture about the renaming of Mattaniah to Zedekiah that gives us some insight into this.

And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah ^{from H4976 and H3050=gift of Yah} his father’s brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah ^{H6664 and H3050=right of yah}.
(2Ki 24:17 KJV)

We like to look at names and what they mean because names matter. Mattaniah which was Zedekiah’s birth name means gift of Yah. Nebuchadnezzar would have known that and he changed it to Zedekiah that means the right of Yah. Nebuchadnezzar would have had to have known YHWH’s name. He didn’t change Mattaniah to something else that didn’t include Yah’s name; he changed it to a different form of Yah’s name. The gift to the right and of course Nebuchadnezzar is probably insinuating his own right of Yah about this.

When Nebuchadnezzar is chewing him out, very likely he is using this term. YHWH is the one that has given him the authority, so it’s interesting to get that insight about Nebuchadnezzar. I also had some other examples that I have looked into and apparently some of the Assyrian Kings knew about that also.

I want to briefly examine the scriptures in Jeremiah and Ezekiel about the prophecy of what is going to happen to Zedekiah.

And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes; (Jer 32:4 KJV)

And thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon. (Jer 34:3 KJV)

It sounds like he is going to keep his eyes, obviously he doesn’t.

And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth ^{talking about Zedekiah leaving}: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes. My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare: and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there. (Eze 12:12-13 KJV)

This is an amazing set of prophecies, we see Jeremiah talking about what he will see and Ezekiel says he won’t see Babylon once he gets there, and how it ultimately turned out that indeed Nebuchadnezzar put out his eyes.

The path of this is interesting on the map on this map. From Jerusalem Zedekiah and probably all of the captives would have taken this path up north along the Mediterranean coast and up around Aleppo and Carchemish is up here of course, and then all the way down following the Euphrates River to Babylon.

Also note that near Babylon is the Chebar River, of course this is where Ezekiel was living at this point in time while he was prophesying. We see that Ezekiel mention this location in several different places, Ezekiel 1, 3, and 10. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of the path they took.

I think it is of interest to consider the path that Abraham took from Ur which is in this same area in Babylon up north and around following the Mediterranean coast down when he was accepting the promise of YHWH of a Promised Land and all of the associated blessings and mercy and grace that YHWH placed on him. Abraham took this same path then, that now the Israelites are being taken captive out.

Jerusalem ends up being razed in all of this, the end of the First Temple, the end of Jerusalem for seventy years so that there could be a time of rest. In 2 Kings the account tells us:

And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: And he burnt the house of YHWH, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire. And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away. But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.
(2Ki 25:8-12 KJV)

Jerusalem is razed, the Temple is destroyed, and the inhabitants are exiled with the exception of a few poor left to take care of the land. Notice that this is the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, and also, if you jump back to the other benchmark that I mentioned in Ezekiel 40, read it again;

In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of YHWH was upon me, and brought me thither. (Eze 40:1 KJV)

We have already seen that the captivity started back in the time of Jehoiachin. The fourteenth year after the city was captured starts from this date. We will start the fourteen year count when we start putting a timeline together, and you will see how this works out. This is where we will stop on this historical journey this time. The insight into the history gives us all a good set of dates to look at and to try to put on a timeline to see if they all interlink and interact. The nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar is when this event happened and we will see if that in fact, lines up with the other events. You are going to be delighted to see that it does.

Do Your Own Homework that’s what my mantra is.

For we have not followed cunningly devised ^{G4679=Sofidzo=to render wise with deliberate deception, continue plausible error=sophist} fables, when we made know unto you the power and coming of our Master Yahushua Messiah, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (2Pet 1:16 KJV)

Sophism (Merriam Webster) – an argument apparently correct in form but actually invalid; especially such an argument used to deceive.

All scripture is given by inspiration of YHWH, and is profitable ^{G5624= helpful advantageous} for doctrine ^{G1319=instruction, learning} for reproof ^{G1650=admonish, conviction} for correction^{, G1343=equity of character or act, justification}. (2Ti 3:16 KJV)

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy ^{G5385=Jewish sophistry} and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rediments of the world, and not after Messiah.
(Col 2:8 KJV)

And this I (Paul) pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve ^{G1381=test, discern, examine} things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Messiah. (Php 1:8-10 KJV)

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