The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

Appendix 341
Jehoiakim to throw off the Babylonian yoke, thus ending his three
years of vassalage to Babylon. 66
2 Kings 24:1–7 seems to support the above conclusion. Verse 1
states that “in his (Jehoiakim’s) days Nebuchadnezzar the king of
Babylon came up, and so Jehoiakim became his servant for three
years. However, he turned back and rebelled against him.” As a
result, Jehovah (through Nebuchadnezzar) “began to send against
him marauder bands of Chaldeans and marauder bands of Syrians
and marauder bands of Moabites and marauder bands of the sons
of Ammon, and he kept sending them against Judah to destroy it,
according to Jehovah’s word that he had spoken by means of his
servants the prophets.” — 2 Kings 24:1–2, NW.
The wording of this passage indicates that these marauder bands
kept on raiding the territory of Judah for quite a time, evidently for
some years. Jehovah “began” to send them, and, according to the
New World Translation, “he kept sending them” against Judah. This
was not one attack only, like that mentioned in Daniel 1:1, but it
evidently came upon Judah in waves, time and again. Consequently,
they could not have begun these attacks in the last year of
Jehoiakim’s reign, and this also calls for an earlier beginning of
Jehoiakim’s rebellion.
The three deportations to Babylon
Another line of evidence supporting a natural reading of Daniel
1:1, is that according to 2 Chronicles, chapter 36, verses 7, 10 and
18 the vessels of the temple were brought to Babylon in three
successive installments:
(1) The first time, during Jehoiakim’s reign, “some” of the
vessels were brought to Babylon. (Verse 7)
(2) The second time, together with Jehoiachin, the
“desirable” (NW) or “valuable” (NASB) vessels were brought
to Babylon. (Verse 10)
(3) The third time, together with Zedekiah, “all” the
vessels were brought to Babylon. (Verse 18)
66 “This battle,” says J. P. Hyatt, “must lie back of Jehoiakim’s change of allegiance,
when he withheld tribute from Babylonia, probably making an alliance with
Egypt.” (”New Light on Nebuchadnezzar and Judean History,” Journal of Biblical
Literature, Vol. 75, 1956, p. 281.) It is also possible that this change of allegiance
occurred some time before Nebuchadnezzar’s war with Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar’s
decision to march to Egypt in 601 B.C.E. may have been caused by the alliance
between the Egyptians and Jehoiakim. — See Mark K. Mercer, “Daniel 1:1 and
Jehoiakim’s three years of servitude,” Andrews University Seminary Studies, Vol.
27:3 (Autumn 1989), pp. 188–191.