ToES Diary September 2018

On Tuesday, 21 August, I referred to Note 2 on the Wikipedia page about the siege of Jerusalem ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(587_BC)])

The note is found at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(587_BC)#cite_note-2] and says:

Malamat, Abraham (1968). “The Last Kings of Judah and the Fall of Jerusalem: An Historical – Chronological Study”. Israel Exploration Journal. 18 (3): 137–56. JSTOR 27925138. “The discrepancy between the length of the siege according to the regnal years of Zedekiah (years 9–11), on the one hand, and its length according to Jehoiachin’s exile (years 9–12), on the other, can be cancelled out only by supposing the former to have been reckoned on a Tishri basis, and the latter on a Nisan basis. The difference of one year between the two is accounted for by the fact that the termination of the siege fell in the summer, between Nisan and Tishri, already in the 12th year according to the reckoning in Ezekiel, but still in Zedekiah’s 11th year which was to end only in Tishri.”

This suggests Zedekiah’s reign could be counted from the first month (Nisan) of the religious year or the 7th month (Tishri) of the year which people suggest was the first month of the civil year.  If Zedekiah became king between Nisan and Tishri, then his first year would start a year later for the Tishri-based reckoning.  However, the reference is to just one difference between Ezekiel, and other references doesn’t make the suggestion quite so clear-cut as it seems.  Two complications:

1. Ezekiel reports God’s advice that the siege of Jerusalem began on the 10th day of the 10th month of the 9th year (Ezekiel 24:1-2).  It is not specified what it was the 9th year of, but Ezekiel 1:2 uses a reference to the 5th year of the exile of king Jeconiah/Jehoiachin.  The next reference to a date is in the 6th year.  It seems reasonable to assume that this is the 6th year of the exile, but this is not specified.
The 10th day of the 10th month of the 9th year matches other records in 2 Kings 25:1, Jeremiah 39:1 and Jeremiah 52:4 which relate it to the reign of Zedekiah which began when the exile of King Jeconiah/Jehoiachin started.  This supports the idea that Ezekiel is using the same point of reference as the other passages.

2. Ezekiel does not say when the siege concluded, merely that he hears about it from a fugitive on the 5th day of the 10th month in the 12th year of our exile (Ezekiel 33:21).  The city fell on the 9th day of 4th month of 11th year (2 Kings 25:3-4; Jeremiah 52:5-6) and was destroyed on 7th (2 Kings 25:8) or 10th (Jeremiah 52:12) day of the 5th month of the 11th year.  If the date reference point is the same, this is a delay of almost exactly one year and six months.  This seems a very long delay, but is not impossible – given the long delays between Nebuchadnezzar’s visits to Jerusalem.