The Reason for the Captivity
Yahweh gave to Moses specific instructions on the usage of the land.
The Sabbath Year
Lev 25 And the Lord spoke unto Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,
2 “Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord.
3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard and gather in the fruit thereof,
4 but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord; thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard.
This is with reference to a 7 year period where the 7th year shall be a sabbath of rest for the land.
The Jubilee Cycle and The Year of Jubilee
On top of the Sabbath year observance, there was the Year of Jubilee in a so-called Jubilee Cycle of 49 years.
Lev 25:8 “‘And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
The cycle is made up of 7 Sabbath years which is 7 x 7 which is 49 years.
The Year of Jubilee is the year immediately after the 7th Sabbath year which is:
a) the 50th year OR
b) the 1st year of the next Jubilee Cycle
The Punishment for Disobeying The Land Use Conditions
Yahweh is very specific when it came to the children of Israel disobeying His instructions.
Lev 26:33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.
34 “‘Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate and ye are in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths.
35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest, because it did not rest in your sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it.
God will take the children of Israel out of the land by force (draw out with a sword) and the land shall be desolate and waste. The period of time that the land shall lie in rest shall be the number of Sabbath years the children of Israel did not observe.
The Duration of the Captivity
The Bible is also very clear that the duration of the Captivity period is a total of 70 years.
Jer 25:11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Jer 29:10 “For thus saith the Lord: That after seventy years are accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, causing you to return to this place.
God spoke through Jeremiah to the children of Israel that the period of Captivity which is also the period of desolation of the land shall be a total of 70 years and they will serve the King of Babylon.
God also promised that after the fulfilment of the 70 years captivity in Babylon that God will cause them to return to the land.
2 Chron 36:20 And those who had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia,
21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years.
God always does what He says and the fulfilment of His words are very specific and LITERAL.
How Do We Calculate 70 Sabbath Years
God's accounting is very accurate. However, in the process of counting these 70 Sabbath years owed to God, many are stumped.
Eze 4:4 “Also lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity.
5 For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.
From Ezekiel, we know that God accounted 390 years of disobedience to Israel, the northern kingdom, and 40 years of disobedience to Judah, the southern Kingdom.
There are 430 years in total that the children of Israel disobeyed God regarding the conditions of using the Promised Land.
The challenge is that 70 Sabbath years comes from 490 years and not 430 years. So, how do we get 70 Sabbath years from 430 years?
We must first realize that the children of Israel was very obedient in the early years when they entered into the Promised Land. Which tells us that the Jubilee Cycles were already in operation.
Remembering that there are 7 Sabbath years in a Jubilee Cycle plus the Jubilee Year itself which is also a Sabbath year that makes 8 Sabbath years in one cycle. The Jubilee Year is the 1st year of every Jubilee Cycle as it is the year immediately following the 49 years cycle previous to it.
So, with this knowledge in mind, we can easily calculate how God accounted 70 years owing to Him by the children of Israel for their disobedience in a combined 430 year period.
Into Captivity
The Captivity of Israel was by force and took place in stages as we can see in history.
The Assyrians came to conquer the northern kingdom of Israel in two stages in 734 BC to 732 BC and also in 722 BC. During this time, the Israelites were taken to as far away as in Nineveh and Medo-Persia (present day Iran).
The Babylonians came to take over Israel, the northern kingdom and then finally the sacking of Jerusalem of the southern kingdom of Judah between the years of 604 BC to 507 BC.
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