The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

444 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
“The thought may be paraphrased: ‘With respect to the desolation of
Jerusalem, 70 years must be completed’.” (E. J. Young, The Prophecy of
Daniel, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1949, pp. 183, 184)
In view of Daniel’s reference to and dependence on the statements of
Jeremiah (25:12; 29:10-12), the text could as well be understood to mean that,
with respect to the desolate state of Jerusalem, the predicted 70 years of
Babylonian dominion must be completed before the exiles could return to
Jerusalem to bring its desolation to an end. The grammar clearly allows this
meaning. There is no reason to believe that Daniel reinterpreted the clear
statements of Jeremiah, as is required by Furuli’s interpretation of the text.
It is obvious that Daniel links the 70 years to the desolate state of Jerusalem.
The whole discussion in GTR 4 , Ch. 5, C is based on this. But the fact that
Daniel links or ties the one period to the other is not the same as equating or
identifying the one with the other. To link and to equate are two different things.
In GTR 4 , Ch. 5, C-3, ftn. 33, the following literal translation of Daniel 9:2 is
quoted, based on a detailed grammatical analysis of the text by a Danish
colleague of mine, who is a professional linguistic scholar with an intimate
knowledge of Biblical Hebrew:
“In his [Darius’] first regnal year, I, Daniel, ascertained, in the
writings, that the number of years, which according to the word of
JHWH to Jeremiah the prophet would be completely fulfilled, with
respect to the desolate state of Jerusalem, were seventy years.”
The linguist ended his analysis of Daniel’s statement by making the
following precise distinction:
“This statement in no way proves that Jerusalem itself would lay
desolate for 70 years, only that this time period would be fulfilled before
the city could be freed and rebuilt.”
Other knowledgeable and careful Hebraists have made the same distinction.
In a lengthy comment about Daniel 9:2, Professor Carl F. Keil pointed to the
dependence of the wording of Daniel 9:2 on Jeremiah 25:9-12 and explained:
“With l e mal’ot (to fulfil) the contents of the words of Jehovah, as given
by Jeremiah, are introduced. l e chorbot does not stand for the accusative: to
cause to be complete the desolation of Jerusalem (Hitzig), but l e signifies
in respect of, with regard to. This expression does not lean on Jer. xxix.
10 (Kran.), but on Jer. xxv. 12 (‘when seventy years are accomplished’).
charabôt, properly, desolated places, ruins, here a desolated condition. Jerusalem
did not certainly lie in ruins for seventy years; the word is not thus to be interpreted,
but is chosen partly with reference to the words of Jer. xxv. 9, 11. Yet the
desolation began with the first taking of Jerusalem, and the deportation
of Daniel and his companions and a part of the sacred vessels of the
temple, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (606 [error for 605] B.C.).
Consequently, in the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede over the kingdom
of the Chaldeans the seventy years prophesied of by Jeremiah were now full, the period
of the desolation of Jerusalem determined by God was almost expired.” (C. F. Keil,
Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. IX, pp. 321-322; emphasis added)