My Thoughts on Daniel 1:1 and Jeremiah 25:1
Apparently, there are two verses that seem to come to conflict. Jeremiah 25:1 says that the siege happened during the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Yet, Daniel writes that the siege happened during the third year of Jehoiakim. It would be very important to understand how stuff was written in ancient times. It's like how we try to solve the following:
- It was said that Absalom only waited for four years yet the KJV uses a non-literal 40 years. 2 Samuel 15:7 is often challenged since David would be too old if Absalom waited for a literal 40 years. Yet, it's most likely said that it was Absalom was actually 40 years old when this rebellion happened but he only waited for four years.
- The age of Ahaziah supposedly differs in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. I don't buy the nonsense story from Chick Publications. Actually, we must understand that 42 refers to the time from the rise of Omri's dynasty up to Ahaziah, not the actual age. Modern versions of the Bible prefer to put his literal age in 2 Chronicles to avoid confusion.
1. third year--compare Jeremiah 25:1 , "the fourth year; Jehoiakim came to the throne at the end of the year, which Jeremiah reckons as the first year, but which Daniel leaves out of count, being an incomplete year: thus, in Jeremiah, it is "the fourth year"; in Daniel, "the third" [JAHN]. However, Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 25:1 , 46:2 ) merely says, the fourth year of Jehoiakim coincided with the first of Nebuchadnezzar, when the latter conquered the Egyptians at Carchemish; not that the deportation of captives from Jerusalem was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim: this probably took place in the end of the third year of Jehoiakim, shortly before the battle of Carchemish [FAIRBAIRN]. Nebuchadnezzar took away the captives as hostages for the submission of the Hebrews. Historical Scripture gives no positive account of this first deportation, with which the Babylonian captivity, that is, Judah's subjection to Babylon for seventy years ( Jeremiah 29:10 ), begins. But 2 Chronicles 36:6 2 Chronicles 36:7 , states that Nebuchadnezzar had intended "to carry Jehoiakim to Babylon," and that he "carried off the vessels of the house of the Lord" thither. But Jehoiakim died at Jerusalem, before the conqueror's intention as to him was carried into effect ( Jeremiah 22:18 Jeremiah 22:19 , 36:30 ), and his dead body, as was foretold, was dragged out of the gates by the Chaldean besiegers, and left unburied. The second deportation under Jehoiachin was eight years later.
It's pretty much two different ways of writing days and months. For instance, one can consider the first year of the rule when the ruler of a nation sits down on the first day. However, for others, one may consider the first year of the ruler one year after he or she sat down. It would be like saying "It has been a year since our nation's ruler came to power." So, it looks like Jeremiah was accounting four years based on the time Jehoiakim sat down while Daniel reckoned it based on after a year Jehoiakim sat down. In the lunar calendar, a child is considered one year old. In the solar calendar, a child isn't considered one year old until a year has passed since the child was born.