Babylonians returned. This time they set fire to the Temple, razed the city to the ground, ravaged the land, took thousands into captivity, and brought the Jewish kingdom to an end. These two events, Jerusalem’s subjugation and loss of sovereignty and the destruction of the Jewish kingdom, would open and close a period marking the nation’s last days.”
“How long was it in between the two events?”
“The answer appears in the Book of Jeremiah and 2 Kings. Both use the same expression to date it. Jerusalem was destroyed in
the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar.” 1
“The nineteenth year,” I repeated. “In the vision the man told me it would take nineteen minutes to get to the city. The nineteen minutes were the nineteen years.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “the key is the nineteenth year.”
“So it would be the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. So when did it begin?”
“Shortly after his troops entered Jerusalem. It was then, after hearing of his father’s death, that he returned to Babylon to receive the crown. Nineteen years later he destroyed the kingdom of Judah. So it wasn’t just that Jerusalem was destroyed in the nineteenth year of his reign but that the two events took place nineteen years apart.
“We can further pinpoint it. We know that it wasn’t long after his victory in the Battle of Carchemish that Nebuchadnezzar swept through the land of Syria and Israel. The battle took place in the year 605 BC. Most scholars place it in May or June. Nebuchadnezzar’s father then died in the middle of August. Nebuchadnezzar ascended the Babylonian throne on the first day of the month of Elul.
“Therefore, the window of time for the Babylonians to enter and subjugate Jerusalem falls in between June or July and mid-August 605 BC. Further, the subduing of the cities and lands of Syria could not have happened instantly, and Jerusalem, to the south of Syria, would have fallen in the latter part of that conquest. Thus we can further narrow down the first conquest of Jerusalem to the days between July and mid-August 605 BC.
“Beyond that, when Nebuchadnezzar left the region to return to Babylon, the fighting had apparently subsided, Jerusalem had already been subjugated, and its Jewish captives had already been taken into Babylonian custody. That would have also taken time. These factors point to the subjugation of Jerusalem in July, or the Hebrew month of Tammuz, in the year 605 BC.”
“What about the other event, the destruction that came nineteen years later? Do we know when in the year it happened?”
“It happened in the summer, in the Hebrew month of Av. Both events took place in the summer. So from the initial Babylonian invasion and subjugation of Jerusalem to the nation’s destruction, it was a full nineteen years.”
“But you said the first invasion would have most likely taken place in a different month, the month of Tammuz.”
“Tammuz is one month before Av. So the time between the two events would be just over nineteen years, nineteen years and a few weeks.”
“So how does all this relate to the mystery?”
“We’ve looked at two days,” said the Oracle, “each of them representing a loss, the loss of sovereignty, and the loss of national existence. But the Jubilee brings restoration, the reversing of loss. So when did Israel’s restoration as a nation take place?”
“In 1948,” I replied.
“So then,” said the Oracle, “what happens if you add the period of Israel’s destruction to the start of the period of Israel’s redemption? What happens if you add the nineteen years of the mystery to the year 1948? Where does it bring you?”
“To 1967! 1967 is the nineteenth year!”
“Israel was restored as a nation on May 15, 1948. Jerusalem was restored to Israel on June 7, 1967. So the time period between the two events is nineteen years . . . and a few weeks—the same exact time period of the nation’s destruction. And do you remember how the events of 1967 began, what triggered everything to come out at that exact time?”
“It was triggered by the Soviet Union sending a false report to Egypt.”
“And when did they do that?” asked the Oracle. “They sent that word on the eve of Israel’s anniversary as a nation—the anniversary of the nineteenth year. And when Rabbi Kook spoke his prophetic word on Israel’s restoration, he did so on the day that marked exactly nineteen years from the day of Israel’s declaration of rebirth.
“The time leading up to the war would be known as the waiting period. The