SPECIAL TOPIC: SEVENTY YEARS

SPECIAL TOPIC: SEVENTY YEARS

The time designation appears to allude to a "completed time" (from 7 x 10, see SPECIAL TOPIC: SYMBOLIC NUMBERS IN SCRIPTURE, #4, 5). Notice usages in Scripture.
1. revenge, Gen. 4:24
2. age of Terah when Abram was born, Gen. 11:26
3. seventy in Jacob's family moved to Egypt, Exod. 1:5
4. seventy elders during the Wilderness Wandering Period, Exod. 24:1,9; Num. 11:16,24,25 (also Ezek. 8:11)
5. number of Abimelech's brothers who were killed, Jdgs. 9:56
6. expected life span, Ps. 90:10 (double is a special blessing from God, Job 42:16)
7. Ahab's seventy sons, 2 Kgs. 10:1,6,7
8. seventy year judgment
  1. Judah in Babylon, 2 Chr. 36:21; Ezra 1:1; Jer. 25:11; 29:10; Dan. 9:2; Zech. 7:5
  2. Tyre, Isa. 23:15
9. Jesus sent out seventy, Luke 10:1,17 (possibly symbolically reflects Jewish belief there were 70 languages spoken in all the world, from Genesis 10)
10. forgiveness 70 times 7, Matt. 18:22
Its use in Daniel 9:2 "observed in the books the number of years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet"
This refers to Jer. 25:9-13 or 29:10, although another prophecy is made in 2 Chr. 36:21, where the years of captivity are prophesied as seventy in number because of the Jews' failure to keep the sabbatical years mentioned in Lev. 26:33-35. This time sequence (70 years) is important because it will be picked up on by the interpreting angel in Dan. 9:24 to describe a new period of 70 units which the people of God must endure.
It is possible that the 70 years refers to a complete life span. As God judged Israel with a forty year wilderness wandering period for their unbelief (the age of those who could have been soldiers at the time of the rebellion), He now judges His people with a judgment that covers the life span of an entire generation of faithless Jews.
This construct, "according to the word of YHWH" (BDB 182 and 217), is used often in the OT for God's prophetic communication. YHWH desires and initiates a relationship with humans made in His image for the purpose of fellowship.
Its use in Jeremiah 29:10 "When seventy years have been completed for Babylon"
This same round number is mentioned in Jer. 25:11,12. Some see the time span
1. from the fall of Nineveh, the capital of Syria in 612 B.C. to the fall of the capital of Babylon in 539 B.C.
2. from the destruction of the first temple in 586 B.C. to the construction of the second temple in 516 B.C.
3. from Nebuchadnezzar becoming king in 605 B.C. to the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C.
  The truth of the matter is that there is no literal seventy-year period about which scholars are unanimous. This seems to be a round number which refers to several generations or the normal life span of one individual.
Its use in Zechariah 1:12 "these seventy years"
This is an allusion to Jer. 25:11,12 and 29:10 (cf. 2 Chr. 36:21; Dan. 9:2), giving the specific time of the exile. There has been much discussion about this seventy year period. Is it meant to be a symbol of a large indefinite period of time, like the Hebrew term "forty" or is it a specific seventy year period? The two suggestions are
1. the period from 605 B.C. (Battle of Carchemish) to 539 (fall of Babylon to Cyrus)
2. the seventy year period of time which can be found between the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 586 B.C. to the rebuilding of the second temple in 516 B.C., which is the focus of the prophecy of both Haggai and Zechariah
3. This same temporal symbol is also found in Isa. 23:15,17, where it seems to refer to one life span (which may be the intended thrust of the prophecy, much like "this generation" of the forty year Exodus judgment).