Jubilees (49 years) and Grand Jubilees (490)
and ate that year what grows of the land without cultivation, autumn 1400 to autumn 1399 BC, Josh. 14.
“And then the LAND had REST from war” (AD 1400), Josh 14:15; also 1:13-15, 3:13, 21:44, 22:4, 23:1, i.e., implies the first Sabbath year of rest for the land.)
(Also see note about these verses just below this chart.)
Blue squares represent the “three years” that God would supply from the harvest of the “6th” (48th) year.
Sabbath-years
(in ongoing seven-year cycles)(Autumn to Autumn)6th yearAutumn to Autumn(sowing) 7th(The first inclusive jubilee year runs from Aut. 1358 to Aut. 1357 BC)(no sowing) 8th
(1st of next cycle)(The first exclusive jubilee year runs from Aut. 1357 to Aut. 1356 BC)(sowing)9th
(2nd of next cycle)(sowing)Inclusivereckoning of the “50th” jubilee year(Autumn to Autumn) 48th year(sowing) 49th year is also the 50th(Jubilee sounded on 10th day of the civil New Year, about October. Next12 months is the “year of jubilee”)(no sowing) (1st year of next jubilee cycle)(sowing) (2nd year of next jubilee cycle)(sowing) Fruit harvested from previous year just ended.
(Autumn New Year)Grain harvest
(Spring)Fruit harvested from previous year just ended.
(Autumn New Year)Grain harvest
(Spring)Fruit harvested from previous year just ended.
(Autumn New Year)Grain harvest
(Spring)Fruit harvested from previous year just ended.
(Autumn New Year)Grain harvest
(Spring)Exclusivereckoning of the “50th” jubilee year(Spring to Spring) 48th year(sowing) 49th (no sowing) 50th year(And 1st year of next jubilee cycle)(Jubilee sounded on 10th day of the civil New Year, about October. The previous 6 months and next 6 months is the “year of jubilee”) (no sowing)
(2nd year of next jubilee cycle)(The harvest of uncultivated grain fields from previous two Sabbath years commence in the Spring New Year, then the wheat harvest at Pentecost, then the cultivating and harvest of fruit trees in summer and autumn.)(sowing)(3rd year of nextjubilee cycle)(sowing) Fruit harvest
(Autumn)Grain harvested that grew from previous year just ended.
(Spring New Year)Fruit harvest
(Autumn)Grain harvested that grew from previous year just ended.
(Spring New Year)(no sowing)
Fruit harvest
(Autumn)(sowing)
Grain harvested that grew from previous year just ended.
(Spring New Year)
Fruit harvest
(Begins Autumn)Grain harvested that grew from previous year just ended.
(Spring New Year)
Note: Interestingly, these verses (Josh 14:15; also 1:13-15, 3:13, 21:44, 22:4, 23:1, Num. 32) show that 3 tribes were given rest several months before Spring of 1406 BC — seven years ahead of their brethren! A Sabbath year in retrograde — and further proof that the Jubilee began to be counted from when they entered the Land in 1406 BC — as the Bible plainly states in Lev. 25:2. Unfortunately, one Jewish writer arbitrarily invented the idea that the Jubilee count did not begin until 14 years after the entry into the land and a few older commentaries picked up on it. But this flies in the face of the plain reading of Lev. 25:2, and the above verses. Apparently the goal of the writer was to align the temple vision of Ezekiel, which the bible says occurred “in the 14th yearafter the fall of Jerusalem” (in 587/586 BC), with the Jubilees, (Ezek. 40). The bible gives us but one definite time for the end of the conquest in Joshua 14, and to add to this is to stray from the facts. It was 6.5 years after they entered the land, and then that chapter concludes, “And the LAND had REST from war.” To say that the land needed another seven years (14 in total) before it could enjoy its first real rest is to add to the text a notion foreign to it. The women, children and aged of the three tribes on the east side of the Jordan already had been cultivating the common lands surrounding their “walled cities” to some extent beginning Spring of 1406 BC (while the men of military age were warring with the rest of their brethren), (Num. 32). Therefore, these three tribes would surely have obeyed the law of Sabbath rest for the land during the same year that the land on the west side was finally conquered “and had rest from war”. (This was Aut. 1400 to Aut. 1399 BC, the first Sabbath year. Thus, the land rested one year from toil and war.) Therefore, the 12 tribes would have begun working their land in the Autumn of 1399 BC. After this, the tribes gradually began to cultivate their lands more and more as their individual territories expanded, and this took many generations because the land was never fully subdued, (Judges 1).
Sabbath-years
(in ongoing seven-year cycles)(Autumn to Autumn)6th yearAutumn to Autumn(sowing) 7th(The first inclusive jubilee year runs from Aut. 1358 to Aut. 1357 BC)(no sowing) 8th
(1st of next cycle)(The first exclusive jubilee year runs from Aut. 1357 to Aut. 1356 BC)(sowing)9th
(2nd of next cycle)(sowing)AlternateExclusivereckoning of the “50th” jubilee year(Aut. to Aut.)(Note possiblecontradiction of “sowing in the “8th year.”) 48th year(sowing) 49th (no sowing) 50th (Jubilee sounded on 10th day of the civil New Year, about October. Next12 months is the “year of jubilee”)(no sowing) (sowing) Fruit harvested from previous year just ended.
(Autumn New Year)Grain harvest
(Spring)Fruit harvested from previous year just ended.
(Autumn New Year)Grain harvest
(Spring)Fruit harvested from previous year just ended.
(Autumn New Year)Grain harvest
(Spring)Fruit harvested from previous year just ended.
(Autumn New Year)Grain harvest
(Spring)
God Intended Israel to Enter Promised Land, Pentecost, 1445 BC
However, God intended that the seventh-year Sabbath cycles begin 39 years earlier, that is, the year after the exodus from Egypt in 1446 BC. (Also see article: “Pentecost, 1445 BC: The day Godintended Israel to enter the Promised Land.”) But Israel rebelled and instead wandered in the wilderness 39 years, “40 years” if we included the additional year spent at Mount Sinai. When studying the jubilee system, it is imperative to study it both from when God desired Israel to enter the land and from when they actually did 39 years later. The reason is that God will ultimately hold Israel to account for all its missing Sabbaths including those of the wilderness wandering. God will reckon the missing Sabbath-years from when they rebelled shortly after the exodus and not merely from when they finally entered entered the promised land. This will become increasingly evident as we study the numeric revealed in the Bible about the missing Sabbaths. Therefore, although Israel kept track of its Sabbaths and jubilees from the time of the conquest in 1406 BC (as commanded), yet God kept track of them according to the plan that He originally intended, because when it came time to judge Israel for its ongoing rebellion He also included the 40 years of rebellion in the wilderness. And so “the land enjoyed its missing Sabbath rests” as calculated from the very day that God intended it to rest. For the land did not rest during those 40 years of rebellion between 1446 and 1406 BC because the Canaanites still ruled the land. (See endnote 1for more on why the 40-year desert wandering is to be included in the time that the land should have had its rest.)
The following paragraph has been quoted verbatim from Wikipedia. I am quoting it for two reason: First, because I discovered the importance of the jubilee years of 623 BC to 574 BC in connection with the 1406 BC Canaan entry before I came across this article; secondly, that the author adds additional information about the Talmud that I was unaware of. I am quoting it verbatim because Wikipedia articles are notorious for being rewritten and so this quote might otherwise be lost. Note that the below quote is using the “inclusive” view as explained above. The exclusive dating of the Jubilee year would forward these dates by one year. However, most scholars do in fact believe that the fall of Jerusalem was in 586 BC rather than 587 BC (as is necessary for this date), so that the temple vision of Ezekiel would be in 573 BC rather than 574 unless using a autumn to autumn dating method solely for this second-last date given in the book of Ezekiel, contrary to the rest of the dates in this book. Yet, there would be some justification for this given these words, “in the beginning of the year “, which indeed would normally refer to the Day of Atonement that occurs just after “Rosh Hashanah” (the Jewish “New Year”), but here it more likely refers to the anniversary of when Israel entered the Promised Land in Nisan 10, 1406 BC, in accordance with the religious New Year used throughout the rest of the book of Ezekiel.
Also of interest is that the 9th Jubilee was in 966 BC, when Solomon began building the temple, and the 30th Jubilee was in AD 64, when Herod finished rebuilding (refurbishing) Solomon’s temple. The 21 jubilees between 966 BC and AD 64 (that is, 3 x 7 x 7 x 7-years) effectively spans the history of Solomon’s temple, which was destroyed in AD 70. (Jesus compared Himself to this temple, and with His death, 49 years after it began to be built in 20 BC, John 2:19-20.) All this, therefore, ties in well with Ezekiel’s temple vision in 574/573 BC, Tishri/Nisan 10th. And all this goes not just a little way in proving that the jubilee cycles indeed began in 1406 BC, which at any rate is in agreement with most modern evangelical scholarship. The 70th jubilee year will begin in autumn of AD 2024 and/or 2025. (Also note the fall of Israel to Assyria in 721 BC, on the 14th jubilee.)
Eze 40:1 In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day, the hand of Jehovah was upon me, and he brought me thither.
QUOTE:
The Length of cycle: historical considerations
Although not cited by these authors, two historical arguments also argue for a 49-year cycle. The first is that the Samaritans celebrated a 49-year cycle.[23] Although the Samaritans stopped counting for the Jubilee some hundreds of years ago, according to a recent report an effort is underway to determine the date when counting ceased in order to resume. The counting will again be according to a 49-year cycle.[24] A second historical argument has been presented to the effect that the two instances of a Jubilee mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (tractates Arakin 12a and Megillah 14b) appear to be proper historical remembrances, because the known calculation methods of rabbinic scholarship were incapable of correctly calculating the dates of the Jubilees mentioned.[25] Rabbinic (Talmudic) scholarship always assumed non-accession reckoning for kings, whereby the first partial year of a king was double-counted both for him and as the last year of the deceased king. This reckoning would give 47 years from the Jubilee mentioned in the 18th year of Josiah (Megillah 14b) to the Jubilee that took place 14 years after Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians (Arakin 12a), whereas the correct difference was 49 years (623 BC to 574 BC). This has been presented as additional evidence that the cycle was 49 years, and further that the cycles were being measured until the last Jubilee in the days of Ezekiel, when the stipulations of the Jubilee year, long neglected except in the counting of the priests, could no longer be observed because the people were captive in a foreign land.[26]
The following is still in rough!
The 490-Years of Daniel’s Prophecy
The number 490 found in Daniel 9:24-27 is a key number, for in it are found all other bible prophecy numbers. It’s breakdown is as follows:
“70 x 7” = 490 days/years, which is further broken down as:
(7 x 7 = 49)
+ (62 x 7 = 434)
+ (3½ + 3½ = 7) = 490 days/ years.
The 490 years (or days) of the prophecy in Daniel 9 is broken down as units of “seven-times-seven” days or years (49) x ten (= 490), and is also made up of seven and seventy-year units. The last seven years of the 490 years is also highlighted by the prophecy as 483 years plus seven. (Recall the 483 years from Jacob to the exodus.) These are the same kind of time frames to do with the jubilee cycles given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai (Lev. 25). Thus, the prophecy of Daniel’s “seventy weeks” is borrowing from the language of the jubilee system as explained in Lev. 25. The context of the prophecy in Daniel 9 itself makes this connection certain, for the prophecy came to Daniel upon completion of the 70 missing Sabbath years as earlier prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah. The prophecy of Daniel 9, therefore, simply reveals further numeric details concerning Jeremiahs prophecy about these missing Sabbaths.
Dan 9:2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.
Dan 9:24 Seventy weeks (of years) are apportioned out upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to close the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make expiation for iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the ages, and to seal the vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies.
Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand: From the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah, the Prince, are seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street and the moat shall be built again, even in troublous times.
Dan 9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with an overflow, and unto the end, war, –the desolations determined.
Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and because of the protection of abominations there shall be a desolator, even until that the consumption and what is determined shall be poured out upon the desolate.
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The remaining jubilees till Christ is all accounted for. The prophets said that the land would lay fallow for 70 years so that it could catch up on all its missing Sabbath-years. (Every 7th year the land was to be left fallow, but Israel did not obey God in this so that they went into exile so that the land could catch up on these missing years.) Over a space of 490 years, exactly 70 years were intended to lay fallow because one in every seven years was to be fallow, that is, a “Sabbath” year. (Seven divided into 490 is 70.) Read all of Daniel 9 again. The context agrees. Daniel had just finished praying about the 70 years captivity when he received the revelation of the “70 x 7,” and in his prayer is referring to the prophet Jeremiah, who in turn was referring to the missing jubilees.
Dan 9:2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.
2Ch 36:20-21 “He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”
The missing Sabbath years take into consideration the missing 50th year of the Jubilee cycle. (That is, every 490 there would be 10 accumulated missing {un-kept} jubilee years), plus the 70 regular missing Sabbath years. The span covers a 490-year period, and even 500 years, depending on how one looks at it, and then is repeated a second time. In the following pattern, God clearly exacted the full amount of missing Sabbath years that the law required, even in all its ambiguity as discussed earlier in this document. Even the controversial “50 + 50 + 50-year, etc.”, jubilee methodology seem to be exacted, as well as the normative “49 + 49 + 49 years, etc.” as discussed earlier in this document. All is accounted for even with the different possibilities due to the ambiguity of the text of Lev. 25.
Here is the basic pattern. In the following we concentrate on the would-be Jubilee year of 1445 BC
The following is still in rough form! This was originally written as a private letter.
1446/1445 BC (Exodus/Tabernacle) (The first jubilee was intended to be in the fall of 1445 BC, but was delayed till 1406 BC).
1446/1445 BC plus 1000 years equals 445 BC. The last (substantial) date in the bible, and the last of four decrees to “restore and rebuild Jerusalem” as per the prophecy of Daniel 9. God required the missing Sabbaths over this 1000 years. (It starts at the exodus and not the entry into Canaan 40 years later because the 1000 years traces a history of their failure to keep God’s commandments, a failure that began right from the exodus. However, the official jubilee system that Israel was to keep began at the entry to Canaan 40 years later, in 1406 BC. This agrees with the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, which is 40 years after AD 30 when Christ died, and thus this 40 years parallels the 40 years wondering in the wilderness 490 x 3 (49 x 30) years earlier as discussed elsewhere. Hence, the prophecy of 30 jubilees actually ended at Christ and at the fall of Jerusalem—both. The first was the ideal of God’s first intentions, the second (from 1406 BC) of God’s extended grace. God kept watch over both of them, though men only over the second line of jubilees. You may wish to know that the year 2025 AD will therefore be 70 Jubilees from 1406 BC, which means that 490 Sabbaths of years would have passed. (Seven divided into 490 [times 7] = 490. Will AD 2025 to 2032 [also, 2000 years after the ministry of Christ and 70 jubilees from the 7-year conquest of Canaan] be the 7-year tribulation period of Daniel 9? I really don’t know! The Jubilee year can start as early as Tishri 10, AD 2024, depending on whether the 50th jubilee year is counted inclusively or exclusively.)
Anyway, the 1406 BC thing is a just side note, but an important side note!
Back to the 1445/6 to 445 BC, and 1000 years (a type of the coming millennium).
The first thing to notice is the basic 70,s pattern—two of which are spoken of directly in the bible (Daniel 9, and Zech. 1-2). (For now we use approximate figures. Note that scholars except the 70 years of Daniel 9 as based on Jeremiah as just a round number, the actual being 66 years. Our pattern will be well within this allowance.
606/605 BC (first exile) plus 70 years “captivity” (Daniel 9) = 536 BC (return from Babylon and rebuilding of temple—539 to 536 BC). (First decree of Daniel 9 prophecy in 538 BC.)
586 BC (last exile and fall of Jerusalem) plus 70 years to 516 BC (completion of rebuilding of the temple). (519 BC was the second of four decrees that pertain to the prophecy of Daniel 9.)
Note that the above two figures are 20 years apart. As we shall see, this 20 years represents the missing jubilees over a 1000-year period. The same 20 years of rebuilding the temple parallels the 20 years of Solomon’s building of the temple and palace in 966-946 BC, exactly to the very month 430 years each. See Ezekiel 4.)
The above 516 BC (or 515 BC by some scholars), plus anther 70 years equals 446 or 445 BC, (the decree of Artaxeres to Nehemiah to rebuild walls, which was 1000 years after the exodus/tabernacle.)
Notice the midpoint of the 1000 years is 946 BC, when Solomon completed his 20-year building program. Hence, midway is the middle of the 490 x 2 years, and of the jubilee cycles under study. The theme is consistent. The tabernacle of the exodus, to the temple of Solomon, to the temple of Zerubbabel and of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, to the birth and death of Christ which Jesus said was His temple: “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days…but Jesus spoke (not of the nature temple, but) of His body.” Hence, the royal jubilee cycles of 490 years fall upon the theme of building/destroying and rebuilding of the temple or Jerusalem—all are a type of Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection. (“Jesus tabernacled among us.” John 1.)
We have yet to put all this together, but first the third decree to rebuild Jerusalem given by Artaxeres in 458 BC, allowing Ezra to return and beautify the newly rebuilt temple with gold and strengthen Jerusalem. Thirteen years later was the decree to Nehemiah in 445 BC. These 13 years purposeful lacks 7 years to make the 20 years. (See also the book of Ester, 466 BC to …).
Here is the pattern:
(605 BC exile/plunder of temple) + 20 years (586 BC exile/destruction of Jerusalem and temple) + 70 (Zerubabbel’s temple) + 70 (Nehemiah, 445 BC); or, (605 BC) + 70 (leave Babylon and begin to rebuild temple) + 70 (Ezra’s return to beautify temple) + 20 years (Nehemiah). A Total of 160 years, or 4 generations of 40 years.
Total missing Sabbaths for the land over 1000 years = 70 x 2.
Total missing Jubilees for the land over 1000 years = 10 x 2.
Total missing Sabbaths and Jubilees over 1000 years = 80 x 2 = 160.
Hence, the breakdown of all the missing jubilees over the millennium of Old Testament history from the exodus to Nehemiah (the end of the Old Testament Bible) is broken-down so as to touch upon every significant event at the beginning, middle, and ending of this period, all along the theme of Jerusalem and the temple. (Or more broadly, of exile and recovery.) (The 40 years wondering in the wilderness is a part of that breakdown.)
Yet there is more!
Israel (and Samaria) to the north (as distinct to Judah and Jerusalem of the south) went into exile 70 x 2 years before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC! Moreover, Israel, like Judah, fell in three stages. Assyria first began to conquer Israel in 738 BC, which was 70 x 2 to the exile of 597 BC (with Ezekiel), and is 70 x 4 years till when Ezra returned to beautify the temple after it was denuded in 597 BC.
Hence the pattern of 70’s continues. As per the prophecy of Daniel 9, “70 x 7 years are decreed…”
But why another 70 x 7 plus 20 years back to the fall of Israel?
It is because, whereas Judah likely kept the weekly Sabbaths of the Lord (but not faithfully the yearly Sabbaths for the land), Israel to the north, which was more apostate, never kept the weeks Sabbaths or festival days either. (Israel served Baal, and put up their own temple to Baal in Samaria.) This means that Israel to the north not only failed to keep the seven-year Sabbaths for the land, but also the seven-day Sabbaths as well. Hence, over a 1000-year period, they failed to keep 70 x 2 Sabbath years, and 70 x 2 Sabbath days amounting to another 70 x 2 years, for a total of 70 x 4 years, or 280 years, which is 7 generations, (40 x 7 = 280). Thus, over the 1000-year period Israel failed to keep 280 years of Sabbaths, so that only 720 years was she allowed to remain n the land because of her unfaithfulness. (The 720 is divided in half as 360 x 2 years—a day for each year—just as the 280 is divided into 140 x 2.) Israel was besieged by Assyrian and fell between 725-722 BC.
The remaining missing 20 years (or 700 years from the exodus, plus 20 + 280) to when Israel first began to fall to Assyria in 738 BC is accounted for by the fact that in every year there were about another 7 days of mandatory special Sabbath days (such as the day of Atonement) that Israel was to do no work, which accounts for the 20 years. (Hence, the full parameter of the 1000 years spans 700 + 300 years = 1000. They were in Egypt a round “400 years,” 10 generations of 40 years, or 4 generations of 100 years as it says in Genesis, “You shall be in a strange land 400 years—in the 4th generation I will come to you.” Hence, 700 + 300 = 1000 equals 3 generations + 7 generations = 10 generations. It happens that 3, 7 and 10 all signify a period of completion or perfection. The 1000 plus the 400 years in Egypt add up to 1400 years, or 10 times the 140—the key number used in our calculations. Hence, the above patters repeat themselves except on a 10 times basis, even as 490 is ten times that of 49. And this 1400-year pattern is indeed there—a wheel within a wheel of 7000-year within 700 within 70 with 7-years cycles. (I.e., 445 BC less 4900 = AD 4455, ten times AD 445, the mirror of 445 BC, etc. For just as there were 70 x 2 years between the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC and 445 BC, plus its 490 years, so there are now 700 x 2 years from 445 BC (from 1846 BC entry into Egypt for “400 years”), plus its 4900 years (from 445 BC). Note that the total time between the entry into Egypt in 1846 BC and the return to Egypt and Babylon in 586 BC are 1260 years, or 1290 years if one takes the literal 430 years in Egypt rather than the said 400 round number of Genesis. Amazingly, 1290 is found in Daniel 12, and 1260 in Revelation 11 and Revelation 12. Both 1260 and 1290 signify half a seven-year period. (This is the beginning of a 7-x-2 years-of-years pattern in parallel with the 70 x 2-year pattern, which begins at the 7 x 2 years of Joseph’s plenty and of famine at the said entry into Egypt in 1876/1846 BC) (See www.360calendar.com for details on the 30-day difference between 1260 and 1290 days/years.)
Thus, the theme of exiled and recovery remains intact throughout.
Thus, God kept perfect record of all Israel’s and Judah’s missing Sabbaths, and required them at their hand for their land. The message is plain: The nation under the Mount Sinai covenant failed to keep and will never keep the covenant to the satisfaction of God, thus the New Covenant in Christ’s blood is needed. As believers in Jesus, we are under another covenant based on a promise by faith in God who keeps His word. One day we will be taken out (exodus) from this world to be with Christ. I believe, too, that Israel will remain on earth as head of the nations for 1000 years—-the 7th 1000 years from the creation, of which 1445 to 445 BC was a type.
All this is just the tip of the iceberg of the working of the jubilees and of the 490 of Daniel 9. For example, the average date of all the 4 decrees of Daniel 9 works out to 490 BC!
538 BC + 519 BC + 458 BC + 445 BC = ‘1960’, divided by four = 490 BC. (See Revelation 12 with Daniel 9 and 12.)
The reason this does this is that all dates in the bible are reflecting to one another as in a mirror. 490 BC reflects AD 490. For example, 445 BC plus 490 x 2 years = AD 536, which is the mirror of 536 BC. Or another example, the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, to the fall of Samaria in 722 BC, as AD 722, are 1260 years. —- And so work all biblical dates in like fashion. I know of no exception. But that is another vast topic!
Moreover, all dates are intersecting literal days with years of equal value. For instance, 490 days after Israel arrived at Mount Sinai was the Day of Atonement in 1445 BC, which is also called the day of Jubilee, (Lev. 13). Thus, 490 days (“seventy weeks”) after the Mount Sinai covenant was given is when the Jubilee cycles were intended to begin, (in 1445 BC). 30 Jubilees later was AD 26, the day of Atonement, when Jesus was “about 30 years old” the very day He began His half-seven-year ministry. The numbers are exact to the day, not merely approximate as I first said for the sake of argument. But to explain all of that would require several books worth of information. But herein is the awesome glory of God especially revealed, for none could do this great numeric feat even if only on pen and paper, and not upon the hearts and minds of men and nations in real life experience.
One final note: The great complexity of the breakdown of the 1000 years warrants us to humbly except the fact that to try to guess the date of our Lord’s return is impossible. Its’ simply too complex. We are simply to rest in the fact that God has everything under control and on His calendar.
(The 490-year cycles also continue perfectly into “the mirror”!)
The Jubilee system predates the Exodus, at least in type:
In 1929 BC, Jacob agrees (covenants) with his uncle Laban to work seven years for a wife. (Jacob, however, got more than he bargained for. He ended up working 7 x 2 years for two wives, that is, seven years for each!) Jacob was 77 years old at the time and would live another 70 years after that and die at the age of 147 (7 x 7 x 3). At his death Jacob is mourned 70 days, (Gen. 50:3).
” Sevens”, or multiples of seven, are common in the life of Jacob. Therefore, it is significant that from the time that Jacob covenanted to work for a wife (in 1929 BC) unto the climax of the exodus from Egypt in 1446 BC are exactly 483 years. The time frame of 483 years is very important in bible prophecy, and is referred to by the prophet Daniel in chapter 9. This “483 years” is seventy-times-seven years — less a seven-year period. (See Daniel 9.) (It also happens that 483 years becomes 490 years when each year is calculated to be an even 360-days long, unadjusted by leap months. However, for the sake of simplicity our study will utilize only “normal” solar years of 365.25 days.)
The reoccurring theme within the life Jacob is one of forgiveness. Jacob and his brother Esau had to forgive one another and later Joseph (Jacob’s son) had to likewise forgive his brothers also. Thus it is significant that Jesus said to the apostle Peter:
“Then came Peter and said to him, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven,” (Matt. 18:21-22).
Thus, we can see that the jubilee pattern of “seven-times-seven years” (49 years) predates the time of the exodus from Egypt as demonstrated from the time frames revealed in Jacob’s life.
Jacob was renamed by God to be “Israel”. As we shall see next, in a sense “Jacob”/”Israel” never did enter his rest from his toilsome life, nor did his descendents. And this is why in a sense the missing jubilees begin from when Jacob/Israel began to work for a wife after fleeing from his brother by trickery in 1929 BC.
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Endnotes:
1.) The point of the entire lengthy chapter of Ezekiel 20 is that, spiritually speaking, Israel never left the wilderness from the time it left Egypt! Israel has always desecrated its Sabbaths. Israel never did enter its rest, and so the land never rested either. (See Hebrews chapter three for the same conclusion.) The following are some verses from Ezekiel that touch on this sad truth:
“So I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and showed them mine ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live in them. Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they rejected mine ordinances, which if a man keep, he shall live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out,” (Ezek. 20:10-14. The numeric revealed in Ezek. 4 also include this 40 years.)
The pattern of failure explained in chapter 20 of Ezekiel clearly includes the wandering in the desert of Sinai, and this wandering is paralleled to the “wandering of Israel in the wilderness of the nations” (that is, the exile in Babylon). (See outline below.) Now, because the wilderness wandering in Sinai is being compared to the exile in Babylon a thousand years later, and because the exile is when the land enjoyed its missing Sabbaths, it follows that the 40 years in the literal wilderness of Sinai also is to be included in the span of time required of Israel to pay back its missing Sabbaths. And as implied already, there is also a sense that the time spent in Egypt also be included. The pattern of failure explained in chapter 20 is as follows:
- Captivity in Egypt
- Deliverance from captivity in Egypt
- Wandering in a literal wilderness
(land does not enjoy its sabbaths because Canaanites still rule it)- Captivity in Egypt and Babylon (again)
- Wandering in a figurative “wilderness of the nations”
(land finally does enjoy all its missing sabbaths because land is desolate [not worked])- Deliverance from captivity (from Babylon)
(For more on this see, ” A Look at the Amazing “430” “490” Pattern“, and, “Those Amazing Jubilees!“ as posted on forum. And, “Pentecost, 1445 BC: The day God intended Israel to enter the Promised Land.”)
2.) The Hebrew Bible (MT) sets the time for when Jacob fled from his brother in Canaan to go sojourn in Haran (for 20 years) at 483 years before the Exodus from Egypt, 1929 BC to 1446 BC. However, while acknowledging that the Hebrew text is always the preferred text, nevertheless, we have taken the position that alternative dates should be looked at as well if they have the backing of the NT (New Testament). (The NT sometimes supports the inferior readings of the LXX {Septuagint} and ST {Samaritan Text}). We do this mainly under the assumption that the NT is inspired of God and therefore if it backs the LXX and/or ST then we should inquire why it does. Our view is that there is the actual date (the MT), and then dates that are derived from the NT that yield different, yet very compatible dates, as far as biblical patterns are concerned. For more on this see “Textual Variations in Bible Chronology Reveal Design. (Part ‘2’).”
So then, there are the actual dates and then there are symbolic dates that compliment the actual dates by reinforcing the numeric pattern of the actual dates. Men like things black and white because it is easier to prove or disprove, but God’s goal is to communicate information about Himself and His ways, and by creating alternative (symbolic) dates God has increased the amount of information communicated by these numeric patterns many times fold. This is the assumption of this website, and it effects dates from the Creation to Jacob.
The LXX, and ST, as apparently supported by the NT (Gal. 3:7), (and the Talmud), reads, “Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt and in the land of Canaan was four hundred and thirty years,” Exodus 12:40. However, the phrase, “and in the land of Canaan” is left out of the (presumed original) Hebrew text. By adding this phase the total count of years back to when they entered Egypt “and the land of Canaan” is reduced. It is reduced by either 33 years or 215 years, depending on whether the text is understood as referring to when Abraham entered “the land of Canaan” or when Jacob and his children entered “the land of Canaan” (after his 20 years sojourn). (Note: Jewish tradition reduces the 215 years to 210 arbitrarily, and so is not considered a viable variable. We must let the text speak for itself and not add to it.)
The reduction by 33 years from the standard chronology occurs if we take the coming of Jacob/Israel and his children into Canaan as the terminus a quo. This seems most agreeable to the plain reading of the text of the LXX that reads, “the children of Israel…dwelt in Canaan”, because neither Israel nor his children were born when Abraham first entered the land of Canaan 182 years earlier, so clearly the LXX cannot refer to Abraham.
Nevertheless, the NT (Gal. 3:7) is ambiguous enough to support either of the three chronologies (including the correct one that follows the MT), however from the NT text itself the reduction of 215 years appears to most likely be what Paul had in mind, that is, the view that the 430-years spanned back to Abraham himself. (It is evident that NT writers relied heavily upon the LXX when citing OT passages.) Moreover, the inferior Samaritan version (ST) reads, “the sojourning of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, in the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt,” and thus, unlike the LXX and MT, does include Abraham! But both the ST and LXX are known for tinkering with the text especially when it comes to numbers, and so are less reliable than the MT.) These variables have led to three different chronologies among students of the bible. But if we take this wiry snake by the tail we find that the several competing chronologies actual compliment one another, and is proof of design, rather than not. Dozens of examples can be given of this design, but here we will look at just one, that of when Jacob entered the land of Canaan as it relates to the 490 of Daniel 9 and the jubilee cycles.
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