Thanks Gamaliel for the great reference to the "Babylonian Chronicles".
Just for your information, this seems to be a very pro-Biblical webpage. Some highlights are that it notes that these are copies from earlier documents and they don't understand why they were necessary, etc. It is not obvious to them that the reason for the "copies" was to make revisions.
Also of note is that the information in the tablets regarding the capture of Jehoiachin is listed and it is in the "seventh year" of Nebuchadnezzar in the last month of the year which is Adar. In the synchronized list, though, it reflects the Biblical reference that it was in the "eighth year" of Nebuchadnezzar that Jehoiachin was deported. So they don't note any discrepancy between the text reference to the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar and the Bible's reference to the 8th year.
But it's hard to avoid since, thanks to the text, we know that the king was deported in the last month of the year, Adar, after having ruled for just 3 months and 10 days. That means Zedekiah would have been appointed that last month. The chronology chart thus shows year 8 of Nebuchadnezzar as the "accession year" of Zedekiah and starts his first year in the NINTH year of Nebuchadnezzar, which indeed, is necessary if by his 11th year it is the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar.
Of course, even the WTS plays games with this last reference since with Jehoiachin's exile being so late in the year, the very last month, unless the reference is to that last month, then most of the years of his exile are consistent with being 8 years different than that of Nebuchadnezzar, the same as with Zedekiah (i.e. the 11th year of Zedekiah was the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar, 11 minus 3 = 8). 2 Kings 25:27 says, "And it came about in the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiachin the king of Judah, in the 12th month, on the twenty seventh day of the month, that Evil-Merodach the king of Babylon, IN THE YEAR OF HIS BECOMING KING, rasied up the head of Jehoiachin the king of Judah out of the house of detention."
Now the Bible says that Jehoiachin was deported in the eighth year at the "turn of the year". Now if that means on the very last day of the year, then this is very late in the 37th year of Jehoiachin's exile and thus it would be the 45th year of Nebuchadnezzar's rule. But even if we considered this to be late enough in the year to be the very beginning of his 37th year of exile, Nebuchadnezzar still would have ruled for 44 years. The chronology from the WTS and from Babylon only show him ruling for 43 years.
My comparisons suggest that this was late in the 37th year of his exile and that his exile wasn't counted until the last day of the year, which is why we are being given this last specific dating. Taht would mean that Nebuchadnezzar ruled for 45 years and thus we can assign a 2-year reduction to his rule which fits other references. For instance, Josephus says that Evil-Merodach ruled for "18 years" whereas the Babylonian records (and even later Josephus) reduces this to 2 years. Point being, we have one reference that doesn't allow us to readily adjust the rulership of Evil-Merodach easily from 18 years. Other references establish that another 6 years of reduction belongs to Darius the Mede per the Bible, and that Nabonidus ruled for 19 years. In order for there to be a 70-year period from the 23rd of Nebuchadnezzar to the 1st of Cyrus, two more years are needed which can be explained by a 45-year original rule by Nebuchadnezzar.
The above, thus, suggests that the "turn of the year" is a reference to the last day of the month, specifically.
Now there is one more issue which I probably need to check out and that is whether or not the year of Jehoiachin's deportation was during an intercalary year. If so then it would mean that he was deported late in the 13th month of the year during that intercalary month, in which case the 27th day of the 12th month would definitely not have begun his 37th year but would be just ending it..
??? I'll get back to you on this. No biggee, but interesting since this thread and reference are here.
Canon