In 606 B.C. Israel (Judah) was taken into captivity by Babylon for exactly 70 years. Therefore, the end of the captivity, according to the Bible and other historical sources – including Flavius Josephus, a first-century Romano-Jewish historian – occurred in the month of Nisan in the spring of 536 B.C. This is the starting point of the fulfillment of one of the most amazing prophecies in all of history!
The Prophecy Regarding the Siege of Israel (Ezekiel 4:1-8 ESV)
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“And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem. And put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
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Here, we find God telling Ezekiel that each day he (Ezekiel) lies on his side will represent one year of punishment for the nation Israel (Israel + Judah) because of their iniquities (sins) against God. So, we have:
390 days (years) Judgment against the 10 northern tribes ‘Israel’
+ 40 days (years) Judgment against the 2 southern tribes ‘Judah’
= 430 years Judgment against the nation of Israel
In 606 B.C. Israel (Judah) was taken into captivity by Babylon for exactly 70 years. This left 360 years of punishment for Israel as shown here:
430 years of judgment determined against nation Israel
– 70 years fulfilled during the Babylonian captivity
= 360 years remaining in judgment against the nation of Israel
So, what happened 360 years after the nation Israel’s release from Babylonian captivity?
A careful study of the history of Israel cannot reveal any significant event that corresponds to this period of 360 years of additional punishment, either at the end of the 430 years or at the end of the 360 years beginning from the end of the Babylonian Captivity in 536 BC.
The majority (95%) of the Jews never returned from Babylon to Israel. Even the minority of the 42,360 Jews (Ezra 2:64) who did return did so with very little faith or true repentance. Most of the Jewish exiles failed to repent of their spiritual rebellion against God and they chose to remain in pagan Babylon.
In 2008, Grant Jeffrey connected the prophecy of Ezekiel 4 to a warning in Leviticus 26:18 where the Lord God spoke the following to the Israelites:
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And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins,
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The fact that many years had elapsed since the Lord God spoke these words did not nullify His promise – God always keeps His promises!
Therefore, the 360 years must be multiplied by seven in order to reveal the true result of God’s judgment:
360 remaining years of judgment
x 7 God’s prophetic “sevenfold” promise
= 2,520 years of judgment remaining against nation Israel
In order to obtain the number of DAYS of judgement remaining upon Israel, we multiply the above result by the number of days in the lunar-solar year. The Genesis account of Noah’s flood confirmed that the ancient peoples of the Middle East, including the Hebrews, used a lunar-solar year of only 360 days with 12 months of 30 days each. Sir Isaac Newton confirmed that the ancient biblical year of the Hebrews, Babylonians, and Egyptians had 360 days.
2,520 years
x 360 days
= 907,200 days of judgment remaining against nation Israel
And now we will convert the days into our (Julian) years:
907,200 days ÷ 365.25 (days in the Julian year) = 2483.7782 or 2484 years
– 536 B.C. end of first 70 years of judgment
+ 2484 Years 2,484 Julian years remaining in this judgment
= 1948 A.D. end of judgment against nation Israel
As noted in the first paragraph above, the captivity ended in the month of Nisan, a spring month. Israel was declared an independent state and therefore reborn as a nation at midnight May 14, 1948.
