The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

Appendix 375
the king of Babel, who “would be a specification of” these nations.
The clause could then be translated:
and they will serve these nations, the king of Babel, seventy years (p.
84)
Furuli also suggests that the particle et might not here be used as
an object marker but as a preposition with the meaning “with.”
Based on this explanation, the clause could even be translated:
and they will serve these nations together with the king of Babel seventy
years (p. 84)
These reconstructions are not supported by any Bible
translations. Not only are they far-fetched, they are refuted by the
wider context. The prediction that the nations surrounding Judah
would serve the king of Babylon is repeated in Jeremiah 27:7 in a
way that is impossible to misunderstand:
And all the nations must serve him and his son and his grandson until the
time even of his own land comes.
The immediate context of the verse proves conclusively that
“the nations” referred to include all the non-Jewish nations in the
Near East. Furuli’s linguistic acrobatics, therefore, are unnecessary,
mistaken, and a case of special pleading.
Furuli’s far-fetched and forced reconstruction of the verse
seems to be an attempt to bring it in agreement with the wording
of the Septuagint version (LXX), to which he then refers in
support. (p. 84) Some of the problems with the LXX version of
Jeremiah are discussed in chapter 5 above, ftn. 8 on pp. 195, 196.
(D-3) Jeremiah 29:10: The meaning of the 70 years for
Babylon
Jeremiah 29:10 is discussed in chapter 5 above, pp. 209–214.
The verse explicitly states that the 70 years refer to Babylon, not
Jerusalem:
This is what the LORD says: ‘When seventy years are
completed for Babylon [l e bâbel] I will come to you and fulfill my
gracious promise to bring you back to this place’ [i.e., to
Jerusalem]. (NIV)
Furuli notes that most Bible translations render the preposition
le as “to” or “for” and that only a very few (usually older)
translations render it as “at” or “in.” (Furuli, p.85) Of the latter, he
mentions six: NWT, KJV , Harkavy, Spurrell, Lamsa, and the
Swedish Church Bible of 1917.
Alexander Harkavy’s edition from 1939 contains the Hebrew
text together with an English translation. Furuli does not seem to