Seder Olam: C27a- Zedekiah
- Albert Benhamou
- Mar 16
- 28 min read
Updated: Mar 20
BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
Generation 27: Hebrew years 3120 to 3240 (640-520 BCE)
Introduction
The eventful chronological 27th Generation sees the fall of the Assyrian empire and destruction of Nineveh, the rise of Babylon, the fall of Jerusalem with the destruction of the Temple of Solomon (the First Temple), the rise of the Persian empire and the fall of Babylon. Three empires changed hand to control the ancient world!
Chronology of the kingdom of Judah during the 27th Generation
The first part of the chronology below covers the time until the end of the kingdom of Judah.
Hebrew Year | BCE | Differ. | Kingdom of JUDAH | Sources | Text |
3121 | -639 | 2 | Amon murdered by his servants | II Kings 21:19 | reigned 2Y |
3121 | -639 | Josiah son of Amon reigns | II Kings 22:1 | aged 8Y | |
3127 | -633 | -25 | Jehoiakim son of Josiah born | II Kings 23:36 | reigned 25Y old |
3129 | -631 | -23 | Jehoahaz son of Josiah born | II Kings 23:31 | reigned 23Y old |
3133 | -627 | 12 | Jeremiah the Prophet; 70 years end of Babylon | Jeremiah 1:2 | Y13 Josiah |
3138 | -622 | 17 | Josiah repairs the Temple; Passover | II Kings 22:3 | |
3140 | -620 | Babylon raises to power; end of Assyrian dominance | Historical | ||
3142 | -618 | -21 | Zedekiah brother of Jehoiakim born | Jeremiah 52:1 | reigned 21Y old |
3145 | -615 | -18 | Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim born | reigned 18Y old | |
3152 | -608 | 31 | Josiah killed in Megiddo by Necoh | II Kings 22:1, 23:29 | reigned 31Y |
3152 | -608 | Jehoahaz son of Josiah chosen king | II Kings 23:30 | reigned 3 months | |
3152 | -608 | Necoh made Jehoiakim son of Josiah king | II Kings 23:34 | older son | |
3155 | -605 | Nebuchadnezzar reigns in Babylon | Historical | ||
3155 | -605 | 3 | Jeremiah prophetizes against Judah; writes down his book | Jeremiah 25:1 | Y4 Jehoiakim |
3155 | -605 | 3 | Battle of Carchemish; Nebuchadnezzar defeats Necoh & Assyria | Jeremiah 46:2 | Y4 Jehoiakim |
3155 | -605 | 3 | Siege of Jerusalem; Jehoiakim vassal, Daniel taken to Babylon | Daniel 1:1 | Y3 Jehoiakim |
3156 | -604 | 1 | Daniel interprets the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar | Daniel 2:1 | Y2 Nebuchadnezzar |
3158 | -602 | 3 | Jehoiakim breaks allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar | II Kings 24:1 | |
3163 | -597 | 11 | Jehoiakim son of Josiah dies | II Kings 23:36 | reigned 11Y |
3163 | -597 | 0 | Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim reigns | II Kings 24:8 | reigned 3 months |
3163 | -597 | 411 | Temple service stopped after 410 years from completion | ||
3163 | -597 | 8 | Jehoiachin taken captive to Babylon | II Kings 24:12 | Y8 of Nebuchadnezzar |
3163 | -597 | 8 | Jehoiachin captivity starts | Ezekiel 1:1-2 | |
3163 | -597 | 0 | Zedekiah named king by Nebuchadnezzar | II Kings 24:17 | renamed from Mattaniah |
3166 | -594 | 3 | False prophecy of Hananiah son of Azzur | Jeremiah 28:1 | Y4 Zedekiah |
3167 | -593 | 4 | Ezekiel the Prophet; vision of the future | Ezekiel 1:1-2 | Y5 Jehoiakim |
3171 | -589 | 8 | Zedekiah rebels: Jerusalem besieged; Zedekiah taken to Babylon | II Kings 25:1 | Y9 Zedekiah |
3173 | -587 | 10 | Zedekiah prisoner: Temple destroyed | II Kings 25:2 | Y11 Zedekiah |
3173 | -587 | Fall of Jerusalem 587 B.C. | II Kings 25:8 | Y19 Nebuchadnezzar | |
3174 | -586 | 11 | Ezekiel meets a survivor from Jerusalem | Ezekiel 33:21 | Y12 captivity |
3174 | -586 | 1 | Gedaliah, governor of Judah in Mizpah, is murdered | II Kings 25:25 |
Year 3121 – 639 BCE – The 8-year-old king of Judah
Amon was murdered by his servants 2 years after the start of his reign. This called for revenge and the people killed all the servants who conspired against Manasseh. They then put his son Josiah on the throne in his stead, although he only was 8 years old. This young age however allowed the people to raise the child in the path of God and he reigned for 31 years.
Year 3133 – 627 BCE – Jeremiah the Prophet
Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah from a family of priests settled in the territory of Benjamin, started to prophesy in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah until Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, was carried away captive to Babylon 30 years later. His main prophecy was about the end of the kingdom of Judah because it adopted the customs of the other nations. And this end happened in his lifetime:
Hear you the word which the Lord speaks unto you, O house of Israel; thus says the Lord: “Learn not the way of the nations and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for it is but a tree which one cuts out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers [so] that it moves not. They are like a [still] pillar in a garden of cucumbers, and speak not; they need to be carried, because they cannot make a step. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good. (Jeremiah 10:1-5)
Year 3138 – 622 BCE – Passover
In the 18th year of his reign, Josiah started to make repairs to the Temple of Solomon and destroyed all the pagan altars that had been raised in the two kingdoms by all the kings before him. He also broke down the altar that Jeroboam, first king of Israel, had raised in Beth-El and made it impure to ensure that it would never be raised again:
And the king commanded all the people, saying: “Keep the Passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” For they had not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this Passover kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. (II Kings 23:21-23)
No Judean king before Josiah had done as much to restore the divine spirit among the people of Israel. The "Book of the Covenant" mentioned in the above text was the original one that was written by Moses under God’s dictation. It had been hidden in the Temple, away from King Ahaz who would have destroyed it. It was shown to King Josiah by Hulda the prophetess who used to live on the Mount of the Olives, facing the Southern slope to the Mount Moriah. There is a tomb in the area which tradition says it is hers. The Southern gates to enter the Second Temple (many years later) were named after her: the Hulda Gates.
The Talmud asked the question about the reason why the scriptures were shown to King Josiah by the prophetess Hulda rather than by Jeremiah the Prophet himself:
But if Jeremiah was there, how could she prophesy? — It was said in the school of Rab in the name of Rab: Hulda was a near relative of Jeremiah, and he did not object to her doing so. But how could Josiah himself pass over Jeremiah and send to her? — The members of the school of R. Shila replied: Because women are tender-hearted. R. Johanan said: Jeremiah was not there, as he had gone to bring back the Ten Tribes. Whence do we know that they returned? — Because it is written, For the seller shall not return to that which is sold. (Ezekiel 7:13) (Talmud, Megillah, 14b)
So, there are some questions about the location of Jeremiah at this time. If he went to bring back the ten exiled tribes, his mission had not fully succeeded as there is other evidence that numerous Israelites remained in the Assyrian empire until its fall 10 years later (see further below the destruction of Nineveh). Some of them moved to Persia and Babylonia before its fall. And other tribes moved more East and populated remote regions of Asia, such as modern-day Afghanistan. One ethnic group in Afghanistan, called the Pashtuns, consider themselves as one of the “lost tribes".
Year 3138 – 622 BCE – King Josiah hides the Ark
According to Tradition, King Josiah hid the Ark of the Covenant and other sacred items as he foresaw the destruction of the Temple after reading the scriptures:
When the Ark was hidden, the bottle containing the Manna [Exodus 16:33] was hidden with it, as well as the bottle containing the sprinkling water [Numbers 19:9], the staff of Aaron [Numbers 17:25] with its almonds and blossoms, and the chest which the Philistines had sent as a gift to the God of Israel, as it is said: And put the jewels of gold which you return to Him for a guilt-offering in a coffer by the side thereof and send it away that it may go. [I Samuel 6:8] Who hid it? — Josiah hid it. (Talmud, Yoma, 52b)
This is confirmed by another passage of the Talmud which, in addition, gives the reason for the king’s decision:
It was Josiah, King of Judah, who hid them; because, having observed that it was written in the Torah, "The Lord will bring you and your king . . . [unto a nation that you have not known]" [Deuteronomy 28:36], he gave orders that they shall be hidden away, as it is said, "And he said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, that were holy unto the Lord, ‘Put the Holy Ark into the house which Solomon the son of David, King of Israel, did build; there shall no more be a burden upon your shoulders; now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel." [II Chronicles 35:3] (Talmud, Horayoth, 12a)
These sacred items were buried in some place inside the Temple Mount (Talmud, Yoma, 54a). An excavation done in 1991 by Rabbi Yehuda Getz and Rabbi Shlomo Goren led to one of the underground tunnels that was used at the time, starting from the so-called Warren's Gate. This gate is today accessible to visitors of the Temple Mount Tunnels tours, but it is sealed to prevent the passage underneath the Dome of the Rock which stands today over the Mount.
This secret tunnel leading from Warren's Gate inside the mount and towards a place directly beneath where the Temple stood once has been nicknamed the "Getz-Goren Tunnel" (for more details, read an article by clicking here.). One of these two rabbis stated that he had no doubt that the Ark of the Covenant was hidden at the end of that particular tunnel, but authorities prevented the excavation to proceed further.
Year 3148 – 612 BCE – The destruction of Nineveh
In the last years of his life, Tobit had the vision of the future and gave advice to his son Tobias:
And when he was very aged, he called his son, and the sons of his son, and said to him: My son, take your children; for, behold, I am aged, and am ready to depart out of this life. Go into Media my son, for I surely believe those things which Jonah the prophet spoke of Nineveh, that it shall be overthrown; and that, for a time, peace shall rather be in Media; and that our brethren shall lie scattered in the earth from that good land: and Jerusalem shall be desolate, and the house of God in it shall be burned, and shall be desolate for a time. (Apocrypha, Tobit, 14:3-4)
The Book of Nahum in the Bible is dedicated to God’s decree against the great city of Assyria:
"And I will cast detestable things upon you [Nineveh], and make you vile, and will make you as dung. And it shall come to pass, that all they who look upon you shall flee from you, and say: 'Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for you?'" (Nahum 3:6-7)
Nahum also predicted that the city would suffer a siege, as did Samaria:
“Draw you water for the siege, strengthen your fortresses; go into the clay, and tread the mortar, lay hold of the brickmould.” (Nahum 3:14)
This siege lasted 3 months from the month of Sivan to the month of Av, and was led by a formidable coalition of Babylonians, Medians and Scythians against the Assyrian capital:
From the month Simanu [Sivan] until the month Âbu [Av], for three months, they subjected the city to a heavy siege. On the Nth day of the month Âbu they inflicted a major defeat upon a great people. At that time Sin-šar-iškun, king of Assyria, died. They carried off the vast booty of the city and the temple and turned the city into a ruin heap. (Chronicle of the Fall of Nineveh, Y14, Livius website)
Tobit died soon after the destruction of Nineveh, so he saw the accomplishment of Jonah’s prediction:
And he died at Ecbatane in Media, being a hundred and seven and twenty years old. But before he died, he heard of the destruction of Nineveh, which was taken by Nebuchadnezzar and Assuerus [Cyaxares, king of Media, born in Ecbatane]: and before his death, he rejoiced over Nineveh. (Apocrypha, Tobit, 14:14-15)
Tobit’s descendants will be among the Israelites who will return to Sion, with Ezra the Scribe, although they seemed to have forgotten their origin from the Tribe of Naphtali, or were ashamed to mention it as they were among the tribes who had adopted idolatry in the kingdom of Israel:
And these were they that went up from Tel-Melah, Tel-Harsa, Cherub, Addan, and Immer; but they could not tell [about] their fathers' houses, and their seed, whether they were of Israel: the children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred fifty and two. (Ezra 2:59 and also Nehemiah 7:61)
The destruction of the Assyrian capital did not immediately cause the end of the Assyrian Empire: it took another three years until Babylon would finally conquer all Assyria.Nothing was left of Assyria after these events because of a drought that ruined the land, people and animals, as the prophet Zephaniah had announced:
And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like the wilderness. And all beasts of every kind shall lie down in the midst of her in herds; both the pelican and the bittern shall lodge in the capitals thereof; voices shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the posts; for the cedar-work thereof shall be uncovered.
This is the joyous city that dwelt without care, which said in her heart: “I am, and there is no one else beside me”; how has she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! Every one that passes by her shall hiss and wag his hand. (Zephaniah, 2:13-15)
There is archaeological evidence of massive climate changes that affected Assyria in the years before its final demise. In one letter, the Assyrian astrologer Akkulanu wrote the following to the king Assurbanipal in 657 BCE:
And about this year’s rains that were diminished and that no harvest was reaped; this is a good omen for the life and well-being of the king my lord. (Parpola, Simo, Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian scholars. Helsinki University Press [State Archives of Assyria 10], Helsinki, 1993)
Today it is assumed that the time of this letter was the start of successive droughts that affected Assyria and ruined its agriculture. Desolation was starting. And the once mighty empire finally fell to the hand of its once vassal kingdom of Babylon.
Year 3150 – 610 BCE – Pharaoh Necoh
When Necoh II became Pharaoh of Egypt in 610 BCE, in the 26th Dynasty, he led a campaign in support of the Assyrians against the Babylonians. He had to cross the kingdom of Josiah but the Judean king would not agree to let the Egyptian army pass freely. Josiah marched onto the city of Megiddo, Lower Galilee in Israel, where Necoh’s army was stationed but he was killed in the battle that he wanted to wage (II Chronicles 35:20-25) (for more details on the battle of Megiddo, click here). Necoh also destroyed the Philistine cities, of which the powerful Gaza (Jeremiah 47:1). These events of the Bible have also been recorded by Herodotus, the famous Greek historian, considered as the Father of History. He completed his book in 440 BCE.
He [Necoh] used these ships when needed, and with his land army met and defeated the Syrians at Magdolus [Megiddo], taking the great Syrian of Cadytis [Gaza] after the battle. (Herodotus, The Histories, Book 2, 159:2)
Note that, for the Greeks, all the Levant region was considered as “Syria” since this is where they later established the regional capital of this region they conquered; the Romans followed their naming of the region.
After the death of Josiah, the people proclaimed his son Jehoahaz, 23 years old, king of Judah. But he diverted from his father’s ways towards God. This attitude was probably caused by the influence of his mother. He only reigned 3 months until Pharaoh Necoh removed him from office and took him captive to Egypt where he died.
Necoh placed Jehoahaz’ older brother Eliakim, who was 25 years old, in his stead, and renamed him Jehoiakim (II Kings 23:31-34). Jehoiakim accepted to be vassal to Necoh and to raise money from the Judean people to pay the requested high tribute. And he also diverted from the path of God.
But the new Babylonian power was rising stronger in the days of Jehoiakim, and even Necoh could not be a match against the army that invaded all the Levant until the brook of Egypt (II Kings 24:7). Jehoiakim had no choice but to change allegiance:
In his days Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him. And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Arameans, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by the hand of His servants the prophets. Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of His sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; and also, for the innocent blood that he shed [the sacrifice of children that Manasseh ordered]; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the Lord would not pardon. (II Kings 24:1-4)
Year 3155 – 605 BCE – Jeremiah prophesies the destruction of Judah
23 years after the beginning of his prophesies, Jeremiah announced in the 4th year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, which was in the 1st year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, the forthcoming exile:
Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not heard My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and I will send unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
Moreover, I will cause to cease from among them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be desolation, and a waste; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years.
And it shall come to pass, when 70 years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, says the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it perpetual desolations.
And I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. (Jeremiah 25:8-13)
This book is the Book of Jeremiah that God instructed the Prophet to write down. He did so with the help of Baruch son of Neriah (Jeremiah 36:1-4).
Year 3155 – 605 BCE – Battle of Carchemish
After defeating the army of King Josiah at Megiddo, Pharaoh marched north to meet with the Assyrian army, their ally, against the king of Babylon. In Carchemish, which is in the northern Syria near Haran, a big battle took place in 605 BCE, precisely when the Biblical text mentioned it as happening in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah (Jeremiah 46:2). The result of this battle was that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed both enemies: Assyria never rose to power again and Egypt lost all their conquest in the Levant and had to retire back to the Nile region. In the years that followed this decisive battle, the king of Babylon pushed the border of his empire until the brook of Egypt which probably meant one of the canals that was located on the eastern side of the Nile Delta, acting as a border with the Sinai Peninsula (before the construction of the Suez Canal in the 19th century).
Year 3155 – 605 BCE – Daniel taken to Babylon
Then Nebuchadnezzar and his army invaded the kingdom of Judah and started to besiege Jerusalem. Rather than facing destruction as his neighbors endured, King Jehoiakim switched allegiance and chose to become vassal to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar took a tribute and spoils from the Temple, and also had some special request:
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God; and he carried them into the land of Shinar to the house of his god, and the vessels he brought into the treasure-house of his god.
And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz his chief officer, that he should bring in certain of the children of Israel, and of the seed royal, and of the nobles, youths in whom was no blemish, but fair to look on, and skillful in all wisdom, and skillful in knowledge, and discerning in thought, and such as had ability to stand in the king's palace; and that he should teach them the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed for them a daily portion of the king's food, and of the wine which he drank, and that they should be nourished for three years; that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were, of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And the chief of the officers gave names unto them: unto Daniel he gave the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abed-Nego. (Daniel 1:1-7)
Daniel, blessed by an intelligence superior to his brethren, was taken to Babylon when he was a young man. And during the next 3 years, he and his 3 companions would be raised in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar before entering at the service of his empire. Daniel had special skills, above his companions:
Now as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. And at the end of the days which the king had appointed for bringing them in, the chief of the officers brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king spoke with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore, stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in his entire realm. (Daniel 1:17-20)
Year 3155 – 605 BCE – Jehoiakim's Rations tablets
The Biblical text above also mentions that daily portions were appointed to the young Judeans. Archaeologists have found that portions, or rations, were also allocated to Jehoiakim and his sons, according to clay tablets found in Babylon at the turn of the 20th century. These tablets mention the name of Jehoiakim [Ia-ku-u-ki-nu].
Year 3156 – 604 BCE – The dream of Nebuchadnezzar
In the second year of his reign, even before the 3 years period that was set for Daniel and his companions to learn about the royal service, Nebuchadnezzar was troubled by a dream. He challenged his magicians and wise men to explain what it meant, but none of them could do it. In an anger of seeing their uselessness, he decreed that all wise men of Babylon were full of lies and that they should be put to death. This decree would have been executed upon Daniel and his companions too, as they also were part of the wise men, but Daniel had a divine vision at night and was able to explain the king’s dreams.
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is detailed in the Book of Daniel, chapter 2, in Aramaic language, not Hebrew. It tells the vision of the future that God granted to the king of Babylon. The vision was of a colossus with a head made of gold, a chest and arms made of silver, a belly and thighs made of brass, two legs of iron and feet of a mixture of iron and clay. Then a stone detached from a mountain and breaks the feet into pieces. All the other parts of this colossus then collapsed altogether.
Daniel explained that the vision was of the future of Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar. The golden head was his present empire, the most powerful of all empires that will ever follow. The silver was the next empire that will take over Babylon: it will be the Persian Empire. It will be a large empire too but weaker than Nebuchadnezzar’s which was of gold. Then a next empire will come, even weaker: it will be the Greeks under Alexander the Great who will conquer Babylon and will end the Persian rule. It is the brass of his vision. The Greek empire is mentioned by Daniel as being one that shall bear rule over all the earth (Daniel 2:39). Indeed, the Greek will spread their culture in the known world, and it will become the foundation of the Western civilization that is the dominant one ever since.
Next will come the iron of two legs. It will be Christianity which will also spread broadly in the world but will equally be broadly divided, as two legs are, between Rome and Constantinople (Western and Eastern), or between Catholic and Reformist.
Last will be the feet made of a mixture of clay and iron. It will be the world as we know it today, where Islam has taken over most of the lands of these old empires, even Babylon, but in a world where the presence of the Greco-Christian heritage will remain present. Both "empires" will dominate the affairs of the world and yet both will never be able to mix because, as Daniel explained to Nebuchadnezzar:
And whereas you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves by the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron does not mingle with clay. (Daniel 2:43)
The vision ends with the allegory of the stone that smashed the colossus, starting by the feet and causing all the rest to collapse and break. We will come back to this part in the chapter about the end of days (see future document C50), because it refers to the final kingdom when the Messiah will be sent by God.
This vision is comparable to the Covenant between the Pieces with Abraham which took place on 15 Nisan of Biblical year 2025 (1735 BCE) (see document C17):
And He said unto him: 'Take Me a female calf (עֶגְלָה) of three years old, and a she-goat (עֵז) of three years old, and a ram (אַיִל) of three years old, and a turtledove (תֹר) and a young pigeon (גוֹזָל).' (Genesis 15:9)
Indeed, Tradition tells that the vision of Abraham also foretold of the successive dominions that will rule the world after Babylon (the first dominion), and links it to the text of Daniel:
Rabbi Eliezer said: The Holy One, blessed be He, showed to our father Abraham at the Covenant between the Pieces the four kingdoms, their dominion and their downfall, as it is said, "And He said unto him, Take me a female calf of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old."
An ‘female calf of three years old' refers to the kingdom of Edom, which is like the calf of a sheep. And 'a she-goat of three years old' refers to the kingdom of Greece, as it is said: 'And the he-goat magnified himself exceedingly' (Daniel 8:8).
And 'a ram of three years old': this is the kingdom of Media and Persia, as it is said: 'And the ram which you saw that had the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia' (Daniel 8:20).
And 'a turtledove', this refers to the sons of Ishmael. This expression is not to be understood in the literal meaning of the word 'Tor' (תור) (for turtledove), but in the Aramaic language, in which 'Tor' means Ox, for when the male ox is harnessed to the female, they will open and break all the valleys, even as it says (about) 'the fourth beast' (Daniel 7:19).
And 'a young pigeon' (גוזל) refers to the Israelites who are compared to a young pigeon (יונה), as it is said: 'O my dove (יונתי), you are in the clefts of the rock, for your voice is pleasant in prayer, and your appearance is beautiful in good deeds' (Song of Songs 2:14). And 'a young pigeon' refers to the Israelites, who are compared to a young pigeon 'My dove (יונתי), my perfect (one), is (but) one' (Song of Songs 6:9). (Pirkei de-rabbi Eliezer, chapter 28)
Note that Edom is traditionally the ancestor of Rome/Christianity, and is here compared to a female calf, or an ‘heifer’. As of Islam, it is the last to rise in the world. This prophecy is about 2000 years old, before Islam.
The same way that Abraham divided the stronger animals, those of three years old (the number three being a reference to strong stability; for Jewish symbolism of the numbers, click here), and placed then one part against another (Genesis 15:10), these three dominions will ultimately collapse caused by internal feud among themselves. This is true for Persia, Greece and Rome that ended either with divisions or civil wars that weakened them. As of the two birds, referring to Islam and Judaism, they are dominated by faith rather than strength or power and therefore remained united respectively, and not split in parts.
Nebuchadnezzar was grateful to Daniel and granted him the position of governor over the province of Babylon. In turn, Daniel appointed his own companions as governors of other provinces of the empire.
Year 3163 – 597 BCE – Nebuchadnezzar spoils Jerusalem
Jehoiakim reigned 11 years and probably died in a battle he waged against the Babylonians, following his last rebellion from their yoke. He indeed rebelled after 3 years of paying tribute, hoping that a new alliance with Egypt would free him from the rule of Babylon. Jehoiakim was succeeded by his 18 years old son Jehoiachin (he is also called Coniah in Jeremiah 37:1). But the latter did not reign more than 3 months because the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and the Israelite royal family surrendered.
The invaders spoiled the city from all its treasures and took in captivity the key people of the kingdom:
At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came unto the city, while his servants were besieging 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; and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign [Nebuchadnezzar’s].
And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, 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 the Lord, as the Lord had said.
And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the 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 chief men of the land, carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths a thousand, all of them strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.
And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father's brother king in his stead and changed his name to Zedekiah. (II Kings 24:10-17)
Jewish scholars generally admit that the First Temple was destroyed after 410 years from its construction. The period of 410 years actually refers to the number of years of (spiritual) service in the Temple, and not until its (physical) destruction. This service stopped from the moment the High Priest was taken to captivity in Babylon at the same time than the other dignitaries of the kingdom of Judah. It was Jehozadak, son of Seraiah, who was the last High Priest (I Chronicles 5:41). A temple without high priest to perform the divine service was just a building of stones and no longer the Temple as the House of God.
The Second Temple was destroyed after 420 years of divine service. We will see that this period was not continuous, unlike for the First Temple. These two numbers 410 and 420 are reflected in the numerical value of the Hebrew word כתית which is used to name the pure olive oil that was used by the priests for the Temple service. This word can be divided in two sections כת and ית which have the numerical value of 420 and 410 respectively (ת=400, כ=20 י=10).
Year 3163 – 597 BCE – Zedekiah, the last king of Judah
Zedekiah was the younger brother of Jehoahaz, from the same mother. He was 21 years old when he was chosen as king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar.
Jeremiah continued to prophesize the fall of the kingdom of Judah in competition with many other false prophets who gave hopes that God would not abandon His people.
Year 3166 – 594 BCE – Hananiah the false prophet
At a time when divine service was no longer performed and when the presence of spiritual leadership with the High Priest was wanting, the people of Judah were confused by several false prophets. One of them, Hananiah, wanted to make them believe that God will save them from the king of Babylon, despite Jeremiah’s prophecies.
God issued a sentence of death against him, and Jeremiah had to deliver it. Hananiah died in the same year, in the 4th of the reign of Zedekiah.
Year 3168 – 592 BCE – The vision of Ezekiel
Ezekiel, son of Buzi, was a priest who had followed King Jehoiakim and the royal family when they surrendered voluntarily to Nebuchadnezzar. He took them to captivity in Babylon and Jehoiakim remained incarcerated until the death of Nebuchadnezzar. The years of captivity of the Israelites in Babylon are counted from the start of Jehoiakim’s captivity which began in the 8th year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.
In the 5th year, which started in Hebrew year 3167, God talked to Ezekiel in exile and showed him some frightful vision of fire, unnatural beasts, and hashmal (Ezekiel 1:4,27). The latter word is difficult to transcribe as Ezekiel used the Hebrew word חַשְׁמַל which, in Modern Hebrew, means Electricity. But the idea is something to do with excitement and fascination.
God also wanted Ezekiel to repent for the sins of Israel and Judah, one day for one year of iniquity:
Moreover, lie you upon your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; according to the number of the days that you shall lie upon it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto you a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days; so, shall you bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it unto you. (Ezekiel 4:4-6)
How did these 390 years get counted?
First, for Israel, it corresponds to the number of years from the time all the Israelites started to sin. The count started from the death of Elazar the High Priest, son of Aaron, in Hebrew year 2558, and it ended with the destruction of the kingdom of Israel in Hebrew year 3041, when its capital Samaria fell after 3 years of siege. The difference of years is 483 years, from which God removed all the years when all the Israelites came back to His path during the period of Samuel (after the death Eli the High Priest in Hebrew year 2688), and until the end of the reigns of David and Solomon in Hebrew year 2781 (80 years for the combined two reigns): this makes a total of 93 years to subtract from the 483 years, and it results in the 390 years calculation. The period of 390 years corresponds to a collective punishment of all the Israelites, not just for the kingdom of Israel.
The count of 390 years is however given as follows by Rashi who quoted the Seder Olam and also the details he had learned from his own teacher:
We learned in Seder Olam (chapter 26): This teaches us that Israel sinned for three hundred and ninety years from the time they entered the Land until the ten tribes were exiled therefrom. You find [the events of] two hundred and forty-three of them delineated: From the time Jeroboam assumed the throne until Hoshea son of Elah was exiled and in “the days that the judges judged” are one hundred and eleven years. The rest, however, are not delineated.
These are [the calculations of] the three hundred and ninety years that I found in a responsum from Rabbi Joseph, the head of the yeshivah, that the ten tribes sinned from the days of Joshua until Sennacherib exiled them from Samaria. Calculate: in the days of the Judges there were 8 years under the rule of Cushan, 18 under the rule of Eglon, 20 under the rule of Sisera, 7 under the rule of Midian, 18 under the rule of the children of Ammon, and 40 under the rule of the Philistines. This totals 111. From Micah until the Ark was captured were 40 years, totaling 151. Calculate for Jeroboam son of Nebat 22, Nadab his son 2, Baasa 24, Elah his son 2, Omri 12, Ahab 22, Ahaziah his son 2, Jehoram his brother 12, Jehu 28, Jehoahaz 17, Jehoash his son 16, Jeroboam his son 41 the total is 350 [351 in fact]. And [with] Menachem son of Gadi 10, Pekahiah his son 2, Pekah son of Remaliah 20, and Hoshea son of Elah 9 years, the total is 391, but Hoshea’s last year is not counted because in Hoshea’s ninth year, Samaria was captured and Hoshea was counted as having reigned 8 [full] years, leaving a total of 390.
The forty years that the kings of Judah sinned after the exile of Sennacherib until [the prophecy of] this chapter was said to Ezekiel are delineated below, and I did not find it necessary to explain them. This is not found in other editions. (Rashi commentary on Ezekiel 4:5)
As of the 40 years of punishment mentioned for Judah, they counted (backwards) for:
the reign of Zedekiah thus far: 4 years
the reign of Jehoiachin until he was taken to captivity: 3 months
the reign of Jehoiakim: 11 years
the reign of Jehoahaz until taken by Necoh to Egypt: 3 months
the reign of Amon until he was murdered: 2 years
part of the reign of Menasseh, the greatest of the sinful kings of Judah: he reigned for 55 years but started to reign when he was only 12 years old, so his years of sin were certainly less than his reign, maybe 22 years and 6 months
Rashi, the medieval commentator, gave the following details, and explained the reason for the 70 years captivity as well:
This teaches us that the house of Judah sinned, from the time that the ten tribes were exiled until Jerusalem was destroyed, forty years: 22 of Manasseh, about whom it is written (II Kings 21:3): “as Ahab… had made,” and Ahab had reigned 22 years; two of Ammon and 11 of Jehoiakim, and this prophecy was transmitted to Ezekiel in the fifth year of Zedekiah. This totals 40 years.
The grand total is four hundred and thirty [years]. After this prophecy, they remained yet six years, equaling 8 jubilees and 36 years. In 8 jubilees [there] are 8 cycles of Sabbatical years, equaling 56 Sabbatical years, totaling 64 [hallowed years]. In 36 years, there are 5 Sabbatical years, totaling 69 land-release years, and the final jubilee year is accounted to them as an iniquity because they were exiled from it [the land] because of their iniquity, totaling 70 hallowed years of land release, which Israel did not observe. Therefore, they were exiled 70 years to fulfill (Leviticus 26:34): “Then the land will appease its Sabbaths.” That is what is written at the end of Chronicles (II Chronicles 36:21): “To fulfill the word of the Lord [that was] in the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land has appeased its Sabbaths, for as long as it lay desolate, it rested, to complete seventy years.”
“Your left side” symbolizes Samaria; “your right side” symbolizes Judah, because Judah is in the south of the land of Israel, as it is said (16:46): “And your big sister Samaria… who lives at your left.” Also, in the Book of Joshua (15:1), he describes the border of the tribe of Judah as occupying the entire "southern" border. (Rashi commentary on Ezekiel 4:6)
So, God applied a symbolic personal punishment to Ezekiel in place of a collective one to all the people of Israel, by ruling the same model as He did to them in the desert after the episode of the 12 explorers (see document C21). Except that, at that time, we made them collectively pay one year for each day, and now He made Ezekiel pay personally one day for each year.
Ezekiel started the punishment on the 5th day of the 4th month of the 5th year of Jehoiachin’s captivity (Ezekiel 8:1), which lasted a total of 430 days (=390+40). In Babylon, they used a lunar calendar at the time, so each month was based on lunar observation with a new moon every 29.5 days in average (some months were counted with 29 days and others with 30 days). So, the 430 days made 14 lunar months and a half, thus the punishment lasted for one year and two and a half months (a lunar year had 12 months at the time, until later when the Babylonians added an intercalary month).
God spoke to Ezekiel at the start of the following month, on the same 5th day of the month:
And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me.
Then I beheld, and, lo, a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins and downward, fire; and from his loins and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the eye of ‘electrum’ (חַשְׁמַלָה). And the form of a hand was put forth, and I was taken by a lock of my head; and a spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. (Ezekiel 8:1-4)
To continue reading to the second section of this generation 27, click here.
To return to the list of chronological generations from Seder Olam Revisited, click here.
Albert Benhamou
Private Tour Guide in Israel
Adar 5785 - March 2025
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