Day 217 - Jeremiah 39, 52, 2 Kings 25

In the twelfth year of king Zedekiah, seventy years before the dominance of the Persians, Nebuchadnezzar campaigned against the Phoenicians and Jews, as Berossus says in his “Researches on the Chaldeans.” [Berossus was a Babylonian priest of Bel, who wrote a history of his country in Greek in the early Alexandrian age (around 290 b.c.).] Juba, [King of Mauretania and learned historian (c. 50 b.c.-a.d. 23).] writing “On the Assyrians,” admits that he took his account from Berossus, testifying to its accuracy. Nebuchadnezzar blinded Zedekiah and removed him to Babylon, deporting the whole people except a few who escaped to Egypt. The captivity lasted for seventy years. Jeremiah and Habakkuk continued to prophesy under Zedekiah, and in the fifth year of his reign Ezekiel was prophesying in Babylon. After him came the prophet Nahum, then Daniel, and again after him, Haggai and Zechariah prophesied for two years under Darius I, and after him, one of the twelve, the Herald. [Malachi.]—St Clement of Alexandria