THE SHORT VERSION:Here's the short version of the true Biblical explanation of the 70 years.The 70 years, as per the Bible and Josephus (see below) began in the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar at the time of the last deportation and lasted until the 1st of Cyrus. The two 70-year references in Zechariah (1 and 7) that end in the 2nd of Darius 70 years after the destruction of Jerusalem and in the 4th of Darius after 70 years of mourning for Gedeliah, were not the same 70 years of desolation of the land since the Jews would have still been in exile 70 and 72 years after the fall of Jerusalem since the last deportation did not begin until 4 years after the destruction of Jerusalem. This proves that DARIUS THE MEDE, the king in reference here, who began to reign first over Babylon immediately after the overthrow by the Medes and the Persians ruled for 6 years before Cyrus took over the entire kingdom and released the Jews and many others in his first year. Also of note, is that Darius the Mede was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar via a state marriage between the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar and the King of Media. Thus when 2 Chronicles refers to the Jews serving Nebuchadnezzar "and his sons" for those 70 years it includes "Darius the Mede". Here is Josephus' statement that is totally ignored by all the scholars above for some reason but that gives the correct Biblical understanding of the 70 years:
IN the first year of the reign of Cyrus 1 which was the seventieth from the day that our people were removed out of their own land into Babylon, God commiserated the captivity and calamity of these poor people, according as he had foretold to them by Jeremiah the prophet, before the destruction of the city, that after they had served Nebuchadnezzar and his posterity, and after they had undergone that servitude seventy years, he would restore them again to the land of their fathers, and they should build their temple, and enjoy their ancient prosperity. And these things God did afford them; for he stirred up the mind of Cyrus, and made him write this throughout all Asia: "Thus saith Cyrus the king: Since God Almighty hath appointed me to be king of the habitable earth, I believe that he is that God which the nation of the Israelites worship; for indeed he foretold my name by the prophets, and that I should build him a house at Jerusalem, in the country of Judea."
Certainly the Jews of all people should know when their 70 years of "servitude" took place. Why weren't they consulted?Canon