The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

The Seventy Years for Babylon 213
KJV. A recent example is the New King James Version (NKJV),
published in 1982. Although the language has been modernized,
the editors have endeavoured to retain the text of the old venerable
KJV as far as possible. The progress made in the last two centuries,
especially by the discoveries of numerous ancient manuscripts of
the Bible, is at best reflected in the footnotes, not in the running
text. That this very conservative version retains the preposition
“at” in Jeremiah 29:10, therefore, is not to be wondered at.
It is interesting to note, however, that other, less traditionbound
revisions of KJV, such as RV, ASV, and RSV, have replaced
“at” by “for” in Jeremiah 29:10, as shown by the quotations given
above. And the latest revision of this kind, the New Revised Standard
Version (1990), has replaced KJV’s “seventy years . . . at Babylon”
by “Babylon’s seventy years”. 27
Why do these and most other modern translations reject the
rendering “at Babylon” in Jeremiah 29:10 in favour of “for
Babylon” or some paraphrase conveying the same idea?
B-2: What Hebrew scholars say
Modern Hebrew scholars generally agree that the local or spatial
sense of l e is highly improbable, if not impossible, at Jer. 29:10. Dr.
Tor Magnus Amble at the University of Oslo, Norway, for
example, says:
”The preposition l e means ‘to’, ‘for’ (`direction towards’ or
‘reference to’). Aside from in a few fixed expressions, it hardly has a
locative sense, and in any case not here. Very often it introduces an
indirect object (‘respecting to’, corresponding to a Greek dative).
This is also how the translators of LXX have understood it, as you
quite correctly point out. Thus the translation has to be: seventy
years ‘for Babel’.” — Private letter dated November 23, 1990.
(Emphasis added.)
The Swedish Hebraist Dr. Seth Erlandsson is even more emphatic:
”The spatial sense is impossible at Jer. 29:10. Nor has LXX ‘at
Babylon’, but dative; consequently ‘for Babylon’ .” — Private letter
dated December 23, 1990. (Emphasis added.)
27 A few other modem translations that still have “at Babylon” in Jeremiah 29:10 may
have been influenced, directly or indirectly, by KJV. One of my friends , a Danish
1inguist, has also drawn my attention to the fact that the Latin Vulgate (4th
century C.E.) has “in Babylon” in our text, which, like KJV’s “at Babylon”, is an
interpretation rather than a translation. It is quite possible that this ancient and
highly esteemed translation, too, may have influenced some modern translations.