Solomon's Temple destroyed in 586 BCE by Dan Bruce There has been a vigorous debate among biblical scholars in recent decades about the year Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple. As archaeology has shed more light on the ancient kingdoms of Mesopotamia, in this case Babylon, some very distinguished scholars have written detailed treatises supporting the year 587 BCE, and a few have suggested the previous year 588 BCE for the destruction. However, since I give more weight to the biblical text and chronology than to the Assyrian records, I do not find the arguments for the Temple being destroyed in 587 BCE or 588 BCE convincing. The Bible, in two separate citations (2 Kings 25:8 and Jeremiah 52:12), records that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem in his nineteenth regnal year, where it is assumed that the biblical scribes who recorded 2 Kings and Jeremiah used the accounting system of Babylon (i.e., with an accession year and regnal years beginning in the Babylonian equivalent of the Hebrew month Nisan) for counting the regnal years of Babylonian kings. Nebuchadnezzar inherited the throne of Babylon after the Battle of Carchemish, which most scholars agree happened sometime between April and August in 605 BCE. Upon the death of his father Nabopolassar, which most scholars agree happened in August 605 BCE, according to the Assyrian Chronicles [BM 22047 (96-4-9, 152)], he became king and was crowned in Babylon in early September. 1 Biblical scribes considered Nebuchadnezzar's first regnal year as beginning in the first Nisan that followed the battle (the Nisan that occurred in March/April 604 BCE), and so his first nineteen regnal years align in history (after the death of Josiah) as follows: 609 BCE Josiah killed at Megiddo by Egyptians in summer 609 BCE, Jehoahaz became king Jehoahaz s accession year began July/August 609 BCE Jehoahaz s Year 1 began in Tishri (September) 609 BCE Jehoahaz deposed by pharaoh Necho in 609 BCE after a three-month reign Jehoiakim appointed king by pharaoh Necho in late 609 BCE, his accession year began Jehoiakim became vassal of Egypt 608 BCE Jehoiakim s Year 1 began in Tishri 608 BCE 607 BCE Jehoiakim s Year 2 began in Tishri 607 BCE 606 BCE Jehoiakim s Year 3 began in Tishri 606 BCE 605 BCE Battle of Carchemish fought sometime between April and August 605 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s forces besieged Jerusalem between April and August in 605 BCE during his western campaign, captured Jehoiakim (and Daniel), took vessels from Temple (Daniel 1:1-2) Jehoiakim became vassel of Babylon for three years (three New-Year Days) until 601 BCE Death of Nabopolassar in Babylon in August 605 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar became king, crowned as Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon in September 605 BCE, his accession year began Jehoiakim s Year 4 began in Tishri (September) 605 BCE 2012 Dan Bruce All Rights Reserved. ~ www.prophecysociety.org Page 1
604 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 1 began in Nisan (March/April) 604 BCE Jeremiah the prophet received word concerning the people of Jerusalem in the fourth regnal year of Jehoiakim and the first regnal year of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 25:1) Jehoiakim s Year 5 began in Tishri 604 BCE 603 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 2 began in Nisan 603 BCE Jehoiakim s Year 6 began in Tishri 603 BCE 602 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 3 began in Nisan 602 BCE Jehoiakim s Year 7 began in Tishri 602 BCE 601 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 4 began in Nisan 601 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s invasion of Egypt failed, Jehoiakim became vassal of Egypt Jehoiakim s Year 8 began in Tishri 601 BCE 600 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 5 began in Nisan 600 BCE Jehoiakim s Year 9 began in Tishri 600 BCE 599 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 6 began in Nisan 599 BCE Jehoiakim s Year 10 began in Tishri 599 BCE 598 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 7 began in Nisan 598 BCE 3,023 Jews exiled from Judah (Jeremiah 52:28), Jerusalem besieged in November 598 BCE Jehoiakim s Year 11 began in Tishri (September) 598 BCE, he died in December 598 BCE Jehoiachin became king in December 598 BCE 597 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 8 began in Nisan (March 21) 597 BCE Jehoiachin went out to Nebuchadnezzar in late March 597 BCE (2 Kings 24:12,14-15) Jehoiachin deposed, Zedekiah made king and began his accession year in late March 597 BCE Jehoiachin, Ezekiel, and 7,000 Jews deported after Passover 597 BCE 2 Zedekiah's Year 1 began in Tishri 597 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 1 in captivity began in Tishri 597 BCE 3 596 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 9 began in Nisan 596 BCE Zedekiah's Year 2 began in Tishri 596 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 2 in captivity began in Tishri 596 BCE 2012 Dan Bruce All Rights Reserved. ~ www.prophecysociety.org Page 2
595 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 10 began in Nisan 595 BCE Zedekiah's Year 3 began in Tishri 595 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 3 in captivity began in Tishri 595 BCE 594 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 11 began in Nisan 594 BCE Zedekiah's Year 4 began in Tishri 594 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 4 in captivity began in Tishri 594 BCE 593 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 12 began in Nisan 593 BCE Zedekiah's Year 5 began in Tishri 593 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 5 in captivity began in Tishri 593 BCE 592 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 13 began in Nisan 592 BCE Zedekiah's Year 6 began in Tishri 592 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 6 in captivity began in Tishri 592 BCE 591 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 14 began in Nisan 591 BCE Zedekiah's Year 7 began in Tishri 591 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 7 in captivity began in Tishri 591 BCE 590 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 15 began in Nisan 590 BCE Zedekiah's Year 8 began in Tishri 590 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 8 in captivity began in Tishri 590 BCE 589 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 16 began in Nisan 589 BCE Zedekiah's Year 9 began in Tishri 589 BCE (2 Kings 25:25) Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 9 in captivity began in Tishri 589 BCE 588 BCE Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem in tenth month (Ezek. 24:1) January 588 BCE (some scholars place the beginning of the siege in late December, 589 BCE) Nebuchadnezzar's Year 17 began in Nisan 588 BCE Zedekiah's Year 10 began in Tishri 588 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 10 in captivity began in Tishri 588 BCE 587 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 18 began in Nisan 587 BCE Word comes to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 32:1); 832 Jews exiled from Jerusalem (Jeremiah 52:29) Zedekiah's Year 11 began in Tishri 587 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 11 in captivity began in Tishri 587 BCE 2012 Dan Bruce All Rights Reserved. ~ www.prophecysociety.org Page 3
586 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 19 began in Nisan (March/April) 586 BCE TEMPLE DESTROYED IN AB (July/August) 586 BCE Zedekiah fled Jerusalem, reign ended, taken to Babylon (August) 586 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 12 in captivity began in Tishri 586 BCE 585 BCE Ezekiel learned of Temple destruction in January 585 BCE (Ezek. 33:21) Nebuchadnezzar's Year 20 began in Nisan (March/April) 585 BCE 1st Passover since Temple destroyed occurred in 585 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 13 in captivity began in Tishri 585 BCE 584 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 21 began in Nisan 584 BCE 2nd Passover since Temple destroyed 584 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 14 in captivity began in Tishri 584 BCE 583 BCE Nebuchadnezzar's Year 22 began in Nisan 583 BCE 3rd Passover since Temple destroyed 583 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 15 in captivity began in Tishri 583 BCE 582 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 23 began in Nisan 582 BCE 745 Jews exiled from Judah (Jeremiah 52:30) 4th Passover since Temple destroyed 582 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 16 in captivity began in Tishri 582 BCE 581 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 24 began in Nisan 581 BCE 5th Passover since Temple destroyed 581 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 17 in captivity began in Tishri 581 BCE 580 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 25 began in Nisan 580 BCE 6th Passover since Temple destroyed 580 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 18 in captivity began in Tishri 580 BCE 579 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 26 began in Nisan 579 BCE 7th Passover since Temple destroyed 579 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 19 in captivity began in Tishri 579 BCE 578 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 27 began in Nisan 578 BCE 8th Passover since Temple destroyed 578 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 20 in captivity began in Tishri 578 BCE 2012 Dan Bruce All Rights Reserved. ~ www.prophecysociety.org Page 4
577 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 28 began in Nisan 577 BCE 9th Passover since Temple destroyed 577 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 21 in captivity began in Tishri 577 BCE 576 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 29 began in Nisan 576 BCE 10th Passover since Temple destroyed 576 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 22 in captivity began in Tishri 576 BCE 575 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 30 began in Nisan 575 BCE 11th Passover since Temple destroyed 575 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 23 in captivity began in Tishri 575 BCE 574 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 31 began in Nisan 574 BCE 12th Passover since Temple destroyed 574 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 24 in captivity began in Tishri 574 BCE 573 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 32 began in Nisan 573 BCE 13th Passover since Temple destroyed 573 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 25 in captivity began in Tishri 573 BCE 572 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 33 began in Nisan 572 BCE 14th Passover since Temple destroyed 572 BCE (Ezek. 40:1) 4 Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 26 in captivity began in Tishri 571 BCE 571 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 34 began in Nisan 571 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 27 in captivity began in Tishri 571 BCE 570 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 35 began in Nisan 570 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 28 in captivity began in Tishri 570 BCE 569 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 36 began in Nisan 569 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 29 in captivity began in Tishri 569 BCE 568 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 37 began in Nisan (April 22/23) 568 BCE 5 Lunar eclipse on July 4 in Nebuchadnezzar's thirty-seventh year 6 Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 30 in captivity began in Tishri 568 BCE 2012 Dan Bruce All Rights Reserved. ~ www.prophecysociety.org Page 5
567 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 38 began in Nisan 567 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 31 in captivity began in Tishri 567 BCE 566 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 39 began in Nisan 566 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 32 in captivity began in Tishri 566 BCE 565 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 40 began in Nisan 565 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 33 in captivity began in Tishri 565 BCE 564 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 41 began in Nisan 564 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 34 in captivity began in Tishri 564 BCE 563 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 42 began in Nisan 563 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 35 in captivity began in Tishri 563 BCE 562 BCE Nebuchadnezzar s Year 43 began in Nisan 562 BCE Nebuchadnezzar dies 562 BCE Evil-Merodach's Accession Year began 562 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 36 in captivity began in Tishri 562 BCE 561 BCE Evil-Merodach's Year 1 began in Nisan 561 BCE Jehoiachin/Ezekiel's Year 37 in captivity began in Tishri 561 BCE (2 Kings 25:27) 560 BCE Evil-Merodach freed Jehoiachin in twelfth month (February/March) 560 BCE (Jer. 52:31) Evil-Merodach's Year 2 began in Nisan 560 BCE In the scenario above, Year 7 of Nebuchadnezzar would have spanned 598/597 BCE, aligning with the seventh year that D. J. Wiseman 7 proposed, based on his reading of the Babylonian Chronicles, as the regnal year when Nebuchadnezzar began the siege of Jerusalem and captured Jehoiachin. His analysis was based on secular Assyrian records alone. However, according to the biblical text, the surrender of Jehoiachin took place in the eighth regnal year of Nebuchadnezzar, occurring just after the Babylonian New Year in 597 BCE. Apparently, the Babylonian scribe who recorded those events lumped all of the events (the siege and capture of Jerusalem ending with the surrender of the king) into the seventh regnal year of Nebuchadnezzar, although the sequence of events spanned the last days of his seventh regnal year and the first days of his eighth regnal year, both occurring in the year 597 BCE. The destruction of the Temple would have occurred twelve years later, in the month of Ab in the nineteenth regnal year of Nebuchadnezzar, which corresponds to the year 586 BCE (as shown in the tabulation of events in relation to their Gregorian years displayed in the listing above). So, 586 BCE is the correct year for the destruction of Solomon's Temple. 2012 Dan Bruce All Rights Reserved. ~ www.prophecysociety.org Page 6
Endnotes 1 The year of the Battle of Carchemish can be located as occurring in 605 BCE by the lunar eclipse that occurred on April 22, 621 BCE, in the fifth year of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, as follows: November 626 BCE - Nabopolassar crowned king, accession year began Nisan (March/April) 625 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 1 began Nisan 624 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 2 began Nisan 623 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 3 began Nisan 622 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 4 began Nisan 621 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 5 began April 22, 621 BCE - lunar eclipse in 5th year of Nabopolassar Nisan 620 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 6 began Nisan 619 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 7 began Nisan 618 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 8 began Nisan 617 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 9 began Nisan 616 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 10 began Nisan 615 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 11 began Nisan 614 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 12 began Nisan 613 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 13 began Nisan 612 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 14 began Nisan 611 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 15 began Nisan 610 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 16 began Nisan 609 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 17 began Nisan 608 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 18 began Nisan 607 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 19 began Nisan 606 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 20 began Nisan 605 BCE - Nabopolassar's Year 21 began August 605 BCE - Nabopolassar dies in his twenty-first regnal year [BM 22047 (96-4-9, 152)] September 605 BCE - Nebuchadnezzar crowned in Babylon, his accession year began 2 The number of Jews exiled from Jerusalem and Judah needs more study to reconcile the numbers given in Jeremiah 52 and 2 Kings 24. The numbers are accurate, but what they are telling us is yet to be understood. 3 Ezekiel apparently counted the years of captivity of Jehoiachin (and the Jewish nation) in the same way that regnal years had been counted in Judah, using the civil calendar that began in Tishri, and thus he began the numbering of the years in captivity with the first Tishri in Babylon, making Tishri 586 BCE mark the beginning of Year 1 in captivity (royal accounting). 4 Ezekiel apparently calculated the years since the destruction of the Temple using the sacred calendar, which began in Nisan, thus using the number of Passovers that could not be observed for numbering the years since the destruction (priestly accounting). 5 Paul V. Neugebauer and Ernst F. Weidner Ein astronomischer Beobachtungstext aus dem 37. Jahre Nebukadnezars II. (-567/66); Sitzung vom 1. Mai 1915, pp. 27-89. [That paper uses astronomical dating, in which there is a year zero. The astronomical year (AY) zero is the same as 1 BCE in today s Gregorian system, and the year -567/66 AY in the article is equivalent to 568/567 BCE Gregorian. Sachs and Hunger calculated that Nebuchadnezzar s 37 th year went from April 22/23, -597 AY (568 BCE) until April 12/13, -566 AY (567 BCE).] 6 The regnal year and associated eclipse are recorded on cuneiform tablet VAT 4956, and the eclipse is confirmed by NASA, see http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/lecat5/le-0599--0500.html. 7 D. J. Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldean Kings in the British Museum (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1956). 2012 Dan Bruce All Rights Reserved. ~ www.prophecysociety.org Page 7