Jeffro
Ephraim Stern. “From 604 B.C.E. to 538 B.C.E.—there is a complete gap in evidence suggesting occupation. In all that time, not a single town destroyed by the Babylonians was resettled
Most of the towns were destroyed, and the towns that were destroyed were not resettled throughout the exilic period. Some other towns were not destroyed and remained populated.
-- Well you explain these two comments.
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Complete nonsense. The claim that Babylon was 'called to account' in some manner in 537 BCE is plainly stupid, and the land of Babylon wasn't desolated in 537 either, further invalidating your claim. Daniel 5:26-31 (written later but consistent with how the Jews regarded the period) quite clearly refers to the end of Babylon's days and being called to account when it was conquered in 539.
-- I did not say that Babylon was called into account in 537 BCE. It was only at that time of the Return which was the time of fulfilment of the 70 years after which Babylon was called into account. The fulfilment of the 70 years marked the end of the Exile and the Desolation of Judah. Daniel 5 simply shows that Babylon would soon fall with the approaching end of the Daniel's Exile and the 70 years.
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scholar JW
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