Until now, the Watch Tower Society [WTS] has argued that the “70 years” was a period during which Judah was totally and completely depopulated. For this reason, it constantly argued that the period commenced when the Jews left Judah and entered Egypt. The following comes from the recent October 1, 2011 Watchtower magazine:
“When did the land of Judah become desolated and unworked? … A Jewish revolt brought the Babylonians back to Jerusalem. (2 Kings 24:20; 25:8-10) They razed the city, including its sacred temple, and they took many of its inhabitants captive to Babylon. Within two months, “all the people [who had been left behind in the land] from the least to the greatest, together with the army officers, fled to Egypt for fear of the Babylonians.” (2 Kings 25:25, 26, NIV) Only then, in the seventh Jewish month, Tishri (September/October), of that year could it be said that the land, now desolate and unworked, began to enjoy its Sabbath rest. To the Jewish refugees in Egypt, God said through Jeremiah: “You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them.” (Jeremiah 44:1, 2, English Standard Version) So this event evidently marked the starting point of the 70 years.” (The Watchtower, October 1, 2011, page 27)
Jerusalem was destroyed in the fifth month (Jeremiah 1:3; 52:12). Interestingly, the above passage from the magazine failed to include 2 Kings 25:3, which mentions that Jerusalem was broken into in the fourth month.
The WTS has always pointed to the seventh month (Tishri/October) as the starting point of its 70 years, given that it always started the period two months after Jerusalem was destroyed, relating this to the Jews’ exodus into Egypt. They have constantly said that this exodus into Egypt took place 2 months after Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. This is incorrect, as the two events are separated by at least 2 years, and possibly by 4 years.
(see my Study at: http://www.jwstudies.com/Did_Jews_exit_after_two_months.pdf)
Nevertheless, in its more recent publications, the WTS has thrown all of its arguments into confusion, saying that the “seven times” began when Jerusalem was destroyed.
“Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 607 B.C.E. That was the start of the ‘seven times.’” (“What Can the Bible Teach Us?”, page 217)
Jerusalem was destroyed in the fifth month (two months before October/Tishri). Or is the WTS starting the “seven times” of Daniel two months before the “70 years” of Jeremiah? Does Daniel at Chapter 9 say that this separation of the “seven times” from the “seventy years” was his “understanding of Jeremiah’s letter?
The WTS is absolutely incorrect when it says that Jerusalem fell in the seventh month:
“The 2,520 years began in October 607 B.C.E., when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians and the Davidic king was taken off his throne.” (“What Does the bible Really Teach?”, page 217)
The diagram at page 216 of “What Does the Bible Really Teach?” shows Jerusalem being destroyed in the seventh month. That contradicts the Biblical account.
Maybe the Bible does “really teach” something.
A dose of confusion over the subject that is absolutely fundamentally significant to the WTS’s existence.
Doug