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Chronology and 607 BCE · Claim record

Jeremiah 25:11-12 describes the seventy years as the period during which 'these nations' serve the king of Babylon, ending when God punishes the king of Babylon and his nation. Read that way the period is one of Babylonian domination, running roughly from Babylon's ascendancy after Carchemish to its fall in 539 BCE, rather than a count of years of Judean exile.

Claim ID claim-chronology-70-years-jeremiah-25Concerns 19 September 2026Context
Context · 19 September 2026 Verified

Jeremiah 25:11-12 describes the seventy years as the period during which 'these nations' serve the king of Babylon, ending when God punishes the king of Babylon and his nation. Read that way the period is one of Babylonian domination, running roughly from Babylon's ascendancy after Carchemish to its fall in 539 BCE, rather than a count of years of Judean exile. World English Bible, 2000The JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition; Hebrew text 'Miqra according to the Masorah', 2023

The organisation’s position or later explanation: 'The Bible, however, shows that the 70 years were to be a period of severe punishment from God - aimed specifically at the people of Judah and Jerusalem' (The Watchtower, 1 October 2011, p. 27).

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Peer-reviewed / scholarly Verified

World English Bible, “Jeremiah 25:11-12”

2000 · Jeremiah 25:11-12 · Public domain

“This whole land will be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. “It will happen, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,” says Yahweh, “for their iniquity. I will make the land of the Chaldeans desolate forever.””

The companion passage. Here the seventy years are explicitly the period during which “these nations” — not Judah alone — serve the king of Babylon, and they end with the punishment of the king of Babylon and his nation. Reading that punishment as the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE is the mainstream interpretation; it is an interpretation, and not something the verse itself states. The JPS rendering agrees on the wording: “those nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years”.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Retrieved and read on 19 September 2026 from bible-api.com (translation_name “World English Bible”). The whole of verse 12 is now quoted: an earlier version of this record stopped at “for their iniquity” and closed the quotation mark there, which moved the end of the reported speech. The Hebrew and the JPS English of the same verses were separately retrieved from Sefaria; JPS reads “And those nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years” and “When the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation and the land of the Chaldeans for their sins”.

Corroborated by. src-chr-e-jps-jer-29-10

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chr-e-web-jer-25-11-12

Peer-reviewed / scholarly Verified

The JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition; Hebrew text 'Miqra according to the Masorah', “Jeremiah 29:10”

2023 · Jeremiah 29:10 · Jewish Publication Society (translation); Sefaria (digital text)

“For thus said GOD: When Babylon’s seventy years are over, I will take note of you, and I will fulfill to you My promise of favor—to bring you back to this place.”

The Hebrew reads ki lefi melot le-Bavel shiv'im shanah. The preposition le- attached to 'Babylon' can be read either as 'for Babylon' (a period belonging to Babylon) or as 'at Babylon' (a period served in Babylon); this translation takes the former.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The Sefaria API was queried on 19 September 2026 and both the pointed Hebrew and the JPS English returned and read. The version is “THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition” over the Hebrew text “Miqra according to the Masorah”, licensed CC BY-NC. JPS sets the divine name in small capitals; it is given here in plain capitals. The opening clause “For thus said GOD” is restored here: an earlier version of this record began the quotation at “When Babylon’s”, which made this verse look shorter than the KJV and New World renderings quoted beside it.

Corroborated by. src-chr-e-kjv-jer-29-10

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chr-e-jps-jer-29-10

Claim page

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