Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 36:21
So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Chronicler records this statement immediately after describing the Babylonian exile, marking the transition from Judah's subjugation to the rise of Persian power.
The words — The text highlights רָצְתָה (ra.tze.Tah), meaning "it has accepted" or "enjoyed rest," and לְ/מַלֹּ֤אות (le./ma.Lot), meaning "to fulfill."
The thread — This fulfillment motif connects to Leviticus 26:34 regarding the land's Sabbaths during desolation and Jeremiah 25:11 and Jeremiah 29:10 regarding the seventy-year period of exile.
Why it lands — The text states the land's rest lasted until seventy years were completed to fulfill Jeremiah's word. This requires a reader to acknowledge that historical exile and restoration follow a fixed divine timeline rather than human contingency.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 29:10 For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.
- Leviticus 26:34 Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.
- Jeremiah 25:11 And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
- Daniel 9:2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
- Zechariah 1:12 Then the angel of the LORD said, “How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?”
- Leviticus 26:43 For the land will be abandoned by them, and it will enjoy its Sabbaths by lying desolate without them. And they will pay the penalty for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and abhorred My statutes.
- Leviticus 25:4 But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath to the LORD. You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.
- Jeremiah 25:9 behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
- Jeremiah 26:6 then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth.’”
- Jeremiah 27:12 And to Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke the same message: “Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and live!