scholiar:
Both renderings of Jeremiah 29:10 in the respective NWT editions are sound and in agreement, the 1984 edition's rendering of this verse is more accurate technically with the recent edition being more readable. Our interpretation of this verse an dthe entire chapter is also sound because this prophecy was addressed to all of the exiles in Babylon awaiting the expiration of the foreordained period of seventy years thus after the official decree of release, off they go home.
You haven't dealt with the obvious error in the JW interpretation that I already outlined. As usual, you can't actually quote parts and reason on what the text actually says. Instead, you make baseless claims about Watch Tower Society dogma. Pathetic.
So do you know the population of Jerusalem at the time of its Fall? Where was Zedekiah at that time?
Those are stupid rhetorical questions. The Bible presents the figures for the number of people deported in each exile. Either you believe those numbers or you don't. But if you don't, then there's little point relying on the Bible anyway. (Although JW dogma contradicts the Bible anyway, so that probably isn't much of a problem for you.)
Was he not in Jerusalem so how can you say then that the second deporatation was less than the first when the city was still there and the land was still populated.
We've already covered the fact that you're obviously not very good at arithmetic. And the land was still populated after Jerusalem's destruction. In fact, parts of Judea remained populated throughout the entire period, as indicated by Ephraim Stern (who the Watch Tower Society saw fit to misquote in the Awake! of June 2012).
Common sense and the Bible tells you that there was to a far greater Exile in the wings ten years after the first deporation which was a minor exile.
Nothing in Jeremiah's letter sent to exiles already in Babylon in 594BCE (614BCE in Watch Tower Society chronology) alludes to a period that would begin later. There is no reason at all to conclude that the recipients of that letter would assume that '70 years' referred to some future exile.
You have not proved that there was no exile at all with regards to the seventy years because the seventy years by any natural definition was an exile because it began with all of the constituents that make up a exile. The fact of punishment is the exile, the fact of servitude and deporation is an exile , the fact that the Jews were forced off the land is an exile . All of these things were a punishment for their making Nebuchadnezzer unhappy and their apostasy from true worship and for not observing the sabbaths. They were a very naughty nation.
Your arguments are getting even more tenuous. No one ever said that there wasn't a Jewish exile. That would be stupid. But the Bible does not say there was a 70 year exile. The Bible very clearly indicates that exile was a punishment for nations that refused to serve Babylon. Jeremiah 27:6-11 isn't going to disappear, no matter how much you close your eyes and pretend it's not there. You might also like to note verse 17 of the same chapter: "Serve the king of Babylon and keep on living. Why should this city become a devastated place?" It explicitly states that serving Babylon was a way to avoid devastation.
The verse in Against Apion is problematic and can be explained. The other verses in the Antiquities clearly presents the seventy years as a period similar to the view that we have adopted so Josephus and I are on the same page. I have explained the fifty years on this forum on many occasions.
Once again, the facts show you to be a liar. Josephus indicates that Jerusalem was desolate during the period of 70 years, but that doesn't mean for the entire period. You continue to ignore the 182.5-year period Josephus indicates (in Antiquities) from the fall of Israel until the arrival of Cyrus. In JW dogma, that period is about 200 years. However, my chart readily shows that the period Josephus indicates is spot on.
Your explanation of the text in Leviticus as quoted in 2 Chronicles is plain 'gobblygook' or plain waffle. Ezra quotes Jeremiah and Jeremiah quotes Leviticus which sets out the laws concerning sabbaths and the land and the consequences of what would happen if the Laws were not observed. All of these passages are linked together to prove that the seventyh years was also about the land as well as the nation.
Your lies are getting even more blatant, and even delusional. Jeremiah uses the word "sabbath" seven times. They are all in Jeremiah chapter 17, none are in reference to years of sabbath rest, and none quote from Leviticus chapters 25-26. The parenthetical remark about sabbaths at 2 Chronicles 36:21 is a direct quote from Leviticus, as I have already indicated.
The land paying off its sabbaths is not the same thing as the nations serving Babylon but these events all fell within the same time frame running concurrently for the seventy years proved to be a period servitude-exile -desolation-punishment-foreign nations in servitude along with Judah.
Again, the Bible explicitly indicates that the 70 years was a period during which all the nations would serve Babylon, and that exile was a punishment for nations that refused to serve Babylon.
If you choose to split everything up then please provide a detailed analysis of all of the circumstances for all of the nations where 70 years of whatever was fulfilled. This has never been done . Are you up for it?
I'll think about it after you provide a table of continuous reigns of Neo-Babylonian kings that is compatible with Watch Tower Society chronology.
True, submission to Babylon voluntarily could have avoided punishment and exile but that simply did not happen so they suffered the consequences for seventy years. They were very naughty.
Jeremiah 25 is set in 605BCE (625BCE in Watch Tower Society chronology), at which point the 70 years was already indicated to be unavoidable. (In fact, the seventy years of nations serving Babylon had already begun, but Jeremiah warned of the consequential calamity that would would go "from nation to nation" at different times for different nations). However, Jeremiah 27 indicates that during the reign of Zedekiah (after 597BCE [or 617BCE in JW-land]), it was still not too late for those in Jerusalem to avoid exile, which they could do by serving Babylon. You continue to simply ignore Jeremiah 27. I'm beginning to think you might have torn it out of your Bible.
I believe that our interpretation of the biblical text regarding the seventy years in Jeremiah 29:10 is sound and I am more than happy with the alternative 'for Babylon' as it also can be fully accommodated with our interpretation as I have explained in the past on this forum.
I've already shown that the Watch Tower Society's interpretation cannot be reconciled with the actual context of Jeremiah chapters 27-29, as well as the broader context of the rest of Jeremiah. It's quite amusing that you keep saying 'our chronology', even though if the Watch Tower Society changed it tomorrow, you would immediately switch to whatever your idol preaches.
