In the first year of Da·riʹus the son of A·has·u·eʹrus—a descendant of the Medes who had been made king over the kingdom of the Chal·deʹans— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, discerned by the books the number of years mentioned in the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah the prophet to fulfill the desolation of Jerusalem, namely, 70 years. (Daniel 9:1, 2)
Desolate place (Heb. Ghorbah [strongs 2723])
And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe a sword after you; and your land will be made desolate, and your cities will be devastated. (Leviticus 26:33)
I will put an end to the sound of exultation and the sound of rejoicing, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will be reduced to ruins.’” (Jeremiah 7:34)
“‘But if you will not obey these words, by myself I do swear,’ declares Jehovah, ‘that this house will become a devastated place.’ (Jeremiah 22:5)
I am sending for all the families of the north,” declares Jehovah, “sending for King Neb·u·chad·nezʹzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and something to whistle at and a perpetual ruin. (Jeremiah 25:9)
It is important to note that, according to Jeremiah, not just Judah but all the surrounding nations were to be devastated by Babylon. They were all to become “an object of horror and something to whistle at and a perpetual ruin.”
And all this land will be reduced to ruins and will become an object of horror, and these nations will have to serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.”’ (Jeremiah 25:11)
The Hebrew word for “desolation,” chorbáh is also used in verse 18, where
Jerusalem and the cities of Judah are stated to become “a desolation (chorbáh), . . .
as it is today.”
So I took the cup out of the hand of Jehovah and made all the nations to whom Jehovah sent me drink: starting with Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, her kings and her princes, to make them a ruin, an object of horror, something to whistle at and a curse, as it is today; Jeremiah 25:17, 18
As Dr. J. A. Thompson remarks,
“The phrase as it is today suggests that at the time of writing some aspects of this judgment, at 1east, were apparent.”(The Book of Jeremiah, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980, p. 516)
The prophecy was uttered and written down in the fourth year of Jehoiakim . . . that is, the first year of Nebuchadnezzar.” (Jer. 25:1; 36:1–4) But as that scroll was burned by Jehoiakim some months later, in the ninth month of his fifth year (36:9–25), another scroll had to be written. (36:32) At that time Nebuchadnezzar’s armies had already invaded and ravaged the land of Judah. At the time of writing, therefore, the phrase “as it is today” was probably added as a result of this desolation.
Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and you will keep living. Why should this city become a ruin? (Jeremiah 27:17)
“This is what Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘You have seen all the calamity that I brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah, and today they are in ruins, without an inhabitant. (Jeremiah 44:2)
So my wrath and my anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a ruin and a wasteland, as they are today.’ (Jeremiah 44:6)
Finally Jehovah could no longer put up with your evil practices and the detestable things you had done, and your land became a devastated place, an object of horror and cursing, without an inhabitant, as it is today. (Jeremiah 44:22)
“Son of man, the inhabitants of these ruins are saying concerning the land of Israel, ‘Abraham was just one man, and yet he took possession of the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as a possession.’ (Ezekiel 33:24)
That the word chorbáh does not necessarily imply a state of total desolation “without an inhabitant” can be seen from other texts which use the word, for example Ezekiel 33:24, 27 (”the inhabitants of these devastated places”) and at Nehemiah 2:17.
“This is what you should say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: “As surely as I am alive, those living in the ruins will fall by the sword; those in the open field, I will give as food to the wild beasts; and those in the strongholds and the caves will die by disease. (Ezekiel 33:27)
Finally I said to them: “You can see what a terrible situation we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, so that this disgrace will not continue.” (Nehemiah 2:17)
During Nehemiah’s time Jerusalem was inhabited, yet the city is said to be “devastated (chorbáh).”
Therefore, it is not necessary to believe that when Daniel spoke of the 70 years according to Jeremiah to fulfill the devastations of Jerusalem, that the desolation had to begin with the destruction of the city. Jerusalem was already viewed as desolated prior to its destruction.
“in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, discerned by the books the number of years mentioned in the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah the prophet to fulfill the desolation of Jerusalem, namely, 70 years.” (Daniel 9:2)
The phrase “desolate waste, without an inhabitant” is found at Jeremiah 9:11 and 34:22. Although it refers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah it is nowhere equated with the period of seventy years.
As pointed out by Professor Arthur Jeffrey in the Interpreter’s Bible (Vol. 6, p. 485), chorbáh is ‘often employed to describe the state of a devastated land after the armies of an enemy have passed (Leviticus 26:31, 33; Isaiah 49:19; Jeremiah 44:22; Ezekiel 36:34; Malachi 1:4; 1 Maccabees 1:39).” It would not be inaccurate, therefore, to talk of Judah as chorbáh eighteen years prior to its depopulation, if the land had been ravaged by the army of an enemy at that time. Inscriptions from Assyria and Babylonia show that, in order to break the power and morale of a rebel quickly, the imperial army would try to ruin the economic potential “by destroying unfortified settlements, cutting down plantations and devastating fields” — Israel Eph’al, “On Warfare and Military Control in the Ancient Near Eastern Empires,” in H. Tadmor & M. Weinfield (eds.), History, Historiography and Interpretatian (Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1984), p. 97.