chronology (5) from Solomon to Nebuchadnezzar

In the previous blog about the Biblical chronology, we found that the temple along with Solomon’s palace, was completed in the five hundredth year after the Exodus (3000 AH). It is on this occasion that the LORD for the second time appears to Solomon and binds him to the heart that the future of the house of God and his throne would depend on Solomon’s obedience. If he would listen to God, then his throne would be confirmed. But if not, the people would then be plucked from the land and the house of God would be destroyed. That would all end in a grand drama. 2 Chronicles 7:

²¹ And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house?

We know that Solomon, at the end of his life,  indeed deviated from the Lord and that he was seduced  by his many wives to worship the idols of the nations around him (2Kings 11: 1-13). By this, the fate of his throne, his people and the house of God was sealed. This came into effect immediately after his death, when the kingdom was torn. The bulk of the kingdom, the ten tribes, split off and came under the reign of Solomon’s servant Jeroboam while Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king in Jerusalem of only two tribes. And so it remained until the end. The dynasty of David produced twenty kings after Solomon but never was the separation with the northern kingdom of ten tribes restored. Most of the twenty kings (except seven) continued the ungodly course which Solomon had taken at the end of his life. In the book of “Chronicles” all twenty kings are mentioned by name, described and also for how long they ruled. The duration of their reign is expressed in whole calendar years. That is, a part of the year is not counted. This means that the years of change of rule are not counted. These are, after all, years in which two kings, each ruled in part. When we follow the line from Solomon after the Lord appeared to him ( in 3000 AH), then we know that Solomon subsequently reigned for seventeen (full) years.  After all, if the construction of the temple started in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, (2980) then his reign began  in 2977. He has ruled for forty (full) years, that’s until 3017. In 3018 Solomon died and his son Rehoboam became king in his stead. 3019 became the first full year of Rehoboam’s government. Below is the list of kings and their reigns in full years and the twenty, not counted years in which a change of rule took place.

From the year the Lord appeared to Solomon until the year in which the city Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed we get a timeframe of  a total of 430 years. That this calculation indeed is true, we see when we involve the prophet Ezekiel (that). Because shortly before King Nebuchadnezzar and his armies besieged Jerusalem, the prophet was instructed to draw (up a tile) Jerusalem on a tile and portray their siege. And then we read in Ezekiel 4:

⁴ Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. ⁵ For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY DAYS: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶ And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah FORTY DAYS: I have appointed thee EACH DAY FOR A YEAR.

In total, Ezekiel had to be lying on his right and left sides for (390 + 40 =) four hundred and thirty days. As a depiction of four hundred and thirty years of iniquity of Israel and Judah until the destruction of Jerusalem. The latter forty days as a model for forty years leading up to Jerusalem’s destruction. They are the forty years in which Jeremiah has prophesied until Jerusalem’s destruction (Jer.1: 1-3). This means that the start of the four hundred and thirty years brings us back to the year in which the LORD appeared to Solomon!  The year that the Lord warned him for the demise of the dynasty, the exile and the destruction of the temple. The summation from “Chronicles” is precisely confirmed by the deadline Ezekiel mentions explicitly. So we therefore have two independent witnesses for the length of the period that ended in Jerusalem’s downfall. But that’s not all, because there is another witness. And that concerns the nature of the seventy years that would follow Jerusalem’s destruction. But more about that in a future blog.  MLH

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