The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

214 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
It would be easy to add many other similar statements by Hebrew
scholars, but it may suffice here to quote Professor Ernst Jenni at
Basel, Switzerland. This leading authority on l e (footnote 26 above)
says:
The rendering in all modern commentaries and translations is
“for Babel” (Babel as world power, not city or land); this is clear
from the language as well as also from the context. By the “local
meaning” a distinction is to be made between where? (in, at) and
where to? (local directional “to, towards”). The basic meaning of l
is with reference to, and with a following local specification it can
be understood as local or local-directional only in certain adverbial
expressions (e.g. Num. 11, 10 [Clines DCH IV, 481b] “at the
entrance”, cf. Lamed pp. 256, 260, heading 8151).
On the translations: LXX has with babylôni unambiguously a
dative (”for Babylon”). Only Vulgata has, to be sure, in Babylone,
“in Babylon”, thus King James Version “at Babylon”, and so
probably also the New World Translation.—Letter Jenni-Jonsson,
October 1, 2003. (Emphasis added.)
Thus, as Jeremiah 29:10 literally speaks of seventy years “for
Babylon,” it is clear that they cannot refer to the period of the
desolation of Jerusalem and its temple, or even to the period of the
Jewish exile at Babylon. Rather, like Jeremiah 25:10–12, what is in
view is the period of Babylonian supremacy. This is also the conclusion
arrived at by scholars who have carefully examined the text. Some
typical comments are cited in the accompanying box.
Jeremiah 25:10–12 and 29:10 contain the prophecy of the seventy
years. The next two texts to be discussed, Daniel 9:2 and 2
Chronicles 36:20–21, are just brief references to Jeremiah’s prophecy.
Neither of them pretends to be a thorough discussion of the
prophecy nor gives a detailed application of the period. Every
attempt to find an application of the seventy-year period, therefore,
must proceed from the prophecy, not from the references to it. It is only
the prophecy that gives specific details on the seventy years, as
follows, (1) that they refer to “these nations,” (2) that they were to
be a period of servitude for these nations, (3) that they refer to the
period of Babylonian supremacy, and (4) that this period would be
fulfilled when the king of Babylon was punished. Such detailed
information is missing in the latter references to the prophecy by
Daniel and Ezra. The discussion of these references, then, should
always be done in the light of what the prophecy actually is about.