The Watchtower, “When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part One”
“So according to the Bible, the 70 years was a period of bitter punishment for Judah, and God used the Babylonians as the instrument for inflicting this severe chastisement.”
The article first states the alternative reading it rejects: “Instead of saying 70 years ‘at Babylon,’ many translations read ‘for Babylon.’ (NIV) Some historians therefore claim that this 70-year period applies to the Babylonian Empire. According to secular chronology, the Babylonians dominated the land of ancient Judah and Jerusalem for some 70 years, from about 609 B.C.E. until 539 B.C.E. when the capital city of Babylon was captured.” It then argues from Jeremiah 25:4-11 and Lamentations that the 70 years were aimed at Judah and Jerusalem.
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Provenance and verification note for The Watchtower, When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part One
Confidence note. Full document fetched from the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read in full; the quotation, the paragraph and the page were confirmed against the article text and its embedded page markers (span class=“pageNum”).
Corroborated by. src-chr-o-it1-chronology-70-years
Notes. The article states the “for Babylon” reading of Jeremiah 29:10 before rejecting it; critics sometimes assert that the organisation never mentions it.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chr-o-w-2011-1001-70-years-judah