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– subject to continuing refinement –
See Leviticus 25.
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| Ashurbanipal of Assyria |
Assyria invades Egypt using iron technology. (ASHURBANIPAL of Assyria (668-627 BC).
NAHUM prophesies the destruction of Nineveh using the city of No-Amon (Thebes in Egypt) as an example. (It was sacked by ASHURBANIPAL of Assyria in 663).
Judaea/Judah – King MANASSEH erects a carved idol in the Temple sanctuary (2 Chron.33:7), and is later taken hostage to Babylon by the Assyrians –
| "So the Lord brought against him the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon" |
He cleanses and restores the Temple and its service.
MANASSEH dies. AMON, his son, is crowned.
In Judaea/Judah – Ungodly King AMON is murdered.
His son, JOSIAH, becomes king at the age of 8.
His son, JOSIAH, becomes king at the age of 8.
In Judaea/Judah – King JOSIAH, aged 16, begins to seek the Lord.
In Palestine – A Jewish Sabbatical Year for the land.
In Palestine – A Jewish Sabbatical Year for the land.
In Judaea/Judah – The prophet ZEPHANIAH prophesies.
In Judaea/Judah – JOSIAH, aged 20, begins to purge Jerusalem and its countryside of paganism.
In Nineveh, Assyria – The last great Assyrian emperor ASHURBANIPAL writes, during his reign which ended in this year, of his personal pride in being able to read –
| "the cunning tablet of Sumer, and the dark Akkadian language which is difficult rightly to use; I took my pleasure in reading stones inscribed before the Flood". (Kriwaczek 2010:11) |
In Judaea/Judah – JEREMIAH is called to the prophetic ministry, age 20 at most (cf. Jer.25:3).
In Palestine – A Jewish Sabbatical Year for the land.
A tribal group, the Chaldeans (who later become the Babylonians) win their independence from the Assyrians.
A tribal group, the Chaldeans (who later become the Babylonians) win their independence from the Assyrians.
JEREMIAH is told by God that the kingdom of Judah is now morally more corrupt that the kingdom of Israel which God had judged and sent into exile for their unfaithfulness to His Covenant –
| "And the LORD said to me, 'Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah'." |
Israel's Jubilee Year (50-year cycle in Hebrew inclusive-counting, 49-year cycle in modern counting, see Lev.23:15-16), and the eighteenth year of king JOSIAH'S reign.
In Judaea/Judah – HILKIAH, the High Priest, discovers the Covenant scroll in the Temple, initiating a spiritual renewal under King JOSIAH.
The Ark of the Covenant is returned to the Temple (2 Chron.35:3), and the greatest Passover since the prophet SAMUEL is celebrated in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 34:14-33; 35:18).
The Ark of the Covenant is returned to the Temple (2 Chron.35:3), and the greatest Passover since the prophet SAMUEL is celebrated in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 34:14-33; 35:18).
In Judaea/Judah – Birth of prince JEHOIACHIN (CONIAH).
Nineveh, capital of Assyria, falls as prophesied by NAHUM.
King JOSIAH of Judah is killed by Pharaoh NECHO II at Meggido.
Judaea/Judah – JOSIAH's son JEHOAHAZ (SHALLUM) is crowned king, but after three months he is deported to Egypt by Pharaoh NECHO and dies there (Jer.22:11-17).
September 10: In Judaea/Judah – Pharaoh makes his elder brother ELIAKIM king, changes his name to JEHOIAKIM, and imposes tribute to Egypt on Judah.
rebukes the nation for its infant sacrifice crimes –
"They have built the high places of Topheth in the valley of Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire – something I did not command, nor did it enter My mind. So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room." |
Jeremiah 7:31-32
 engraving of Nebuchadnezzar inside an onyx-stone-eye in a Marduk statue. |
In Judaea/Judah – HABAKKUK begins to prophesy about a coming invasion by the Chaldeans.
JEHOIAKIM abducts the prophet URIAH son of SHEMAIAH from Egypt and murders him. (Jer.26:21-23).
JEHOIAKIM abducts the prophet URIAH son of SHEMAIAH from Egypt and murders him. (Jer.26:21-23).
In Egypt – Crown prince NEBUCHADNEZZAR (נְבוּכַדְנֶצַּר, c.634–562 BC) of Babylon (eldest son of Nabopolassar who had freed Babylon from subservience to Assyria and laid Nineveh in ruins) now soundly defeats pharaoh NECHO of Egypt.
In Judah/Judaea – King JEHOIAKIM becomes a vassal of Babylon, and young DANIEL is deported there with many others.
In Judah/Judaea – King JEHOIAKIM becomes a vassal of Babylon, and young DANIEL is deported there with many others.
Ezekiel 17 later
gives God's view of this.
August 15: NEBUCHADNEZZAR's father dies.
(Nebuchadnezzar in Aramaic)
In Jerusalem – JEREMIAH prophesies a 70 year Exile of Judah from its Land –
| "'Because you have not obeyed My words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. ... This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. But when seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,' declares the Lord, 'and will make it desolate for ever." |
February 2 – March 2: NEBUCHADNEZZAR returns to complete the conquest of the Hittites and exact heavy tribute.
December: In Judaea/Judah – King JEHOIAKIM burns the scroll of JEREMIAH's prophecies while JEREMIAH is under house arrest (Jer.36:22).
In Palestine – A Jewish Sabbatical Year.
In Palestine – A Jewish Sabbatical Year.
In Judaea/Judah – JEHOIAKIM breaks his vassal treaty with NEBUCHADNEZZAR (2 Kg.24:1).
Babylonian armies are temporarily defeated by the Egyptians on Egypt's border after a fierce battle.
In Judaea/Judah – King NEBUCHADNEZZAR takes 3,023 Jewish captives in a preliminary campaign (Jer.52:8).
December 9: In Judea/Judah – JEHOIAKIM son of JOSIAH dies.
His corpse is discarded in disgrace (as JEREMIAH had previously prophesied of him) –
December 9: In Judea/Judah – JEHOIAKIM son of JOSIAH dies.
His corpse is discarded in disgrace (as JEREMIAH had previously prophesied of him) –
| "With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem." |
In Judaea/Judah – HOSHAIAH, the commander of a small military outpost close to Jerusalem, writes to YAUSH/JOASH, the military governor of Lachish with military and political information. He quotes the king of Judaea/Judah as saying that the words of the prophet (JEREMIAH) demoralize the people as they face the Babylonian threat –
"[his words] loosen the hands, weaken the hands of the country and the city" (compare Jer.38:4). |
He appeals to YAUSH/JOASH to intercede on behalf of this prophet before the king and his officers.
| The Lachish Letters. written in carbon ink, in Ancient Hebrew, on 21 clay-ostraca/pottery-fragments, discovered in 1935.
|
March 16 (2 Adar): In Judea/Judah – JEHOIACHIN, who reigned for only three months, is taken captive with his family and all leaders by King NEBUCHADNEZZAR of Babylon.
In 2005: a seal impression is discovered south of Temple Mount by archaeologist Eilat Mazar bearing the name 'Yehochal son of Shelemiah son of Shani' mentioned as a senior official in the court of Zedekiah, referred to in Jeremiah 37:3; 38:1. |
April 22: JEHOIACHIN and family are deported to Babylon with 10,000 others, including the prophet EZEKIEL and KISH, the great grandfather of MORDECAI (Esther 2:5-6).
In Judaea/Judah – All gold (including all gold furniture such as the Ark of the covenant) is stripped and the gold is shipped to Babylon (2 Kg.24:13).
In Judaea/Judah – NEBUCHADNEZZAR appoints MATTANIAH (JEHOIACHIN's uncle) as king, and changes his name to ZEDEKIAH (Jer.27,28).
ZARATHUSTRA (ZOROASTER) of Bactria (Northern Afghanistan) begins his preaching ministry among the Achaemenid/Persian tribes.
July 31: In Babylonia – EZEKIEL sees the vision of the Cherubim and Chariot (Merkavah) of God (Ez.1:1-3). His prophetic ministry begins.
| See: Infant Sacrifice |
September 17: EZEKIEL sees the vision of abominations in the Temple and the departure of God's presence from it (Ez.8-11), because of the cruel human-sacrifice perpetrated by Judah to obtain prosperity through their idols –
| "And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to Me, and these you sacrificed to them [the idols] to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered My children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?" |
| "When you present your gifts and offer up your children in fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day." |
"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
...It is I who by My great power and My outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth,
and [as its Creator] I give it to whomever it seems right to Me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him." (Jer.27:4-6). |
January 15: In Judaea/Judah – NEBUCHADNEZZAR's siege of Jerusalem begins.
God says to JEREMIAH (See Ezek.24:1):
God says to JEREMIAH (See Ezek.24:1):
"Indeed this city [Jerusalem] has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My wrath from the day that they [Israel] built it, even to this day, that it should be removed from before My face, because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger –
they, their kings, their leaders, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." (Jer.32:31-32). |
| After this exile, God explains to a subsequent generation: "They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the Law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear, says the LORD of hosts, and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate." (Zechariah 7:12-14). |
See:
Map of Babylonian Empire
"Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel [to JEREMIAH]: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him – 'Thus says the Lord:
Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.'" (Jer.34:2).
Jeremiah's horrific experience of Jerusalem under siege, in this cry of his heart –
| "Look, O LORD, and see! With whom have You dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the Sanctuary of the Lord?" (Lam.2:20). |
"The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people" (Lam.4:10). |
encourages those who believe, with God's words which promise a reuniting of the whole nation in their restoration to Jerusalem –
when God judges Babylon –
when God judges Babylon –
"In those days ...the sons of Israel will come, both they and the sons of Judah as well... They will ask the way to Zion...". (Jer. 50:4-5). |
January 7: EZEKIEL prophesies against Pharaoh of Egypt concerning its overthrow because they failed to keep their treaty with Judah. (Ez.29:1-).
April 23: EZEKIEL prophesies against the city-state of Tyre of its destruction, which had seen advantage for itself in the destruction of Jerusalem (Ez.26:1-).
April 29: EZEKIEL prophesies the complete destruction of Egypt and the exile of its population (Ez.30:20-).
April 29: EZEKIEL prophesies the complete destruction of Egypt and the exile of its population (Ez.30:20-).
June 21: EZEKIEL prophesies against Pharaoh of Egypt (Ez.31:1-).
July 18: In Judaea/Judah – Jerusalem falls to the Babylonian army.
EZEKIEL's wife dies in their house at Tel-abib on the Chebar canal south-east of Babylon, near the city of Nippur (Ez.24:18).
EZEKIEL's wife dies in their house at Tel-abib on the Chebar canal south-east of Babylon, near the city of Nippur (Ez.24:18).
of 587 assumes a Judean regnal year that began in Spring [c.March].
The alternate year-date 586 assumes that the regnal years of Judean kings began in Autumn [c.October].
The alternate year-date 586 assumes that the regnal years of Judean kings began in Autumn [c.October].
15 to 18: In Judaea/Judah – NEBUCHADNEZZAR's captain of the guard, NEBUZARADAN, burns Jerusalem and the Temple (including the Ark of the Covenant, Jer.3:16) – and carries off remaining Temple treasures.
| "The Lord has scorned His altar, disowned His Sanctuary; He has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they raised a clamor in the House of the LORD as on the day of festival." (Lam.2:7) |
"Your sacred cities have become a desert; even Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a desolation.
Our holy and glorious Temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins." (Isa.64:11) |
| "...the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their Sanctuary..." (2 Chron.36:17). |
"Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the House a wooded height." (Jer.26:18). |
They later justify this by distinguishing between a religious year and a civil year. Although the historian/priest Josephus (1st Cent. AD) still apparently used the God-decreed year.
Ezekiel still holds to the original calendar of Israel ('first month' according to the Hebrew source of the Greek Septuagint version 32:17).
|
| "The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance for His Temple." |
• NEBUZARADAN brings SERAIAH the High Priest and other leaders to NEBUCHADNEZZAR at Riblah for execution.
(His successor as High Priest JEHOZADAK is deported).
(His successor as High Priest JEHOZADAK is deported).
| "The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of [king] Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon." (Jer.39:6-7). |
NEBUCHADNEZZAR appoints GEDALIAH as governor of Palestine, with whom JEREMIAH chooses to stay at Mizpah, the new capital (Jer.40:1-12).
In Judaea/Judah – Governor GEDALIAH, a supporter of JEREMIAH, is murdered by ISHMAEL a member of the Jewish royal family (2 Kg.25:22-26; Jer.40-44). (His murder is still mourned today by Jews at the fast of Tishri 3).
In Judaea/Judah – Governor GEDALIAH, a supporter of JEREMIAH, is murdered by ISHMAEL a member of the Jewish royal family (2 Kg.25:22-26; Jer.40-44). (His murder is still mourned today by Jews at the fast of Tishri 3).
1 Chronicles 6:15.
OBADIAH the prophet prophesies the annihilation of Edom for their bloody plundering of the refugees fleeing from Jerusalem.
In Judaea/Judah – The remaining Jews under leadership of JOHANAN, fearing a Babylonian reprisal, force the prophet JEREMIAH to flee with them to Egypt where they found Jewish military colonies, such as at Yeb (Elephantine) in southern Egypt (in spite of Ezekiel's prophecies against Egypt: Ezek.29).
JEREMIAH continues to prophesy in Egypt (Jer.43:8; 44:30).
JEREMIAH continues to prophesy in Egypt (Jer.43:8; 44:30).
| Israel's Right to Canaan/Palestine | The Victim Mentality Cycle |
Copyright © Lloyd Thomas 1997-2012. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
Feel free to copy, as long as this full copyright notice is included.
Feel free to copy, as long as this full copyright notice is included.