The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

146 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
Second synchronism—Jeremiah 46:2: For Egypt, concerning the
military force of Pharaoh Necho the king of Egypt, who happened
to be by the river Euphrates at Carchemish, whom
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of
Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah. (NW)
This battle in the “fourth year of Jehoiakim” is placed in the year
625 B.C.E. by the Watch Tower Society (Insight on the Scriptures, Vol.
2, p. 483.), which again cannot be harmonized with the
contemporary chronology of Egypt. But if this battle at
Carchemish took place twenty years later, in the accession-year of
Nebuchadnezzar, that is, in June, 605 B.C.E. according to all the
lines of evidence presented earlier, we find this date to be in perfect
harmony with the recognized reign of Pharaoh Necho, 610–595
B.C.E.
Third synchronism—Jeremiah 44:30: This is what Jehovah has said:
‘Here I am giving Pharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt, into the
hand of his enemies and into the hand of those seeking for his
soul, just as I have given Zedekiah the king of Judah into the hand
of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, his enemy and the one
seeking for his soul.’ (NW)
As the context shows (verses 1 ff.) these words were uttered not
long after the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, when the
rest of the Jewish population had fled to Egypt after the
assassination of Gedaliah. At that time Egypt was ruled by Pharaoh
Hophra, or Apries, as he is named by Herodotus. 111
If Apries ruled Egypt at the time when the Jews fled there some
months after the desolation of Jerusalem, this desolation cannot be
dated to 607 B.C.E., for Apries did not begin his reign until 589 B.C.E.
(see table above). But a dating of the desolation of Jerusalem to
587 B.C.E. is in good agreement with the years of reign historically
established for him: 589–570 B.C.E.
Fourth synchronism—B.M. 33041: As mentioned earlier, this text
refers to a campaign against king Amasis ([Ama]-a-su) in
Nebuchadnezzar’s thirty-seventh year. A. L. Oppenheim’s
translation of this scanty fragment reads as follows: “. . . [in] the
37th year, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Bab[ylon], mar[ched against]
Egypt (Misir) to deliver a battle. [Ama]sis (text: [ . . . ]-a(?)-su), of
Egypt, [called up his a]rm[y] . . . [ . . . ]ku from the town Putu-laman
111 His name in the Egyptian inscriptions is transcribed as Wahibre. In the
Septuagint version of the Old Testament (LXX), his name is spelled Ouaphre.