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The Number 70 |
God used the number 70 to number a variety of things in the Bible. He used it in miracles and in prophecies. He used it to represent days, weeks, and years and centuries in the bible.
This is a Biblical Example where Israel and the Egyptians mourned for Jacob for three score and 10 years. A score in the bible is 20 years, therefore 20 +20 +20 = 60 +10=70 years.
Genesis 50:1-3
"1 And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him
threescore and ten days."
In
Daniel 9:23-26, the prophet is told about a 70 week prophecy:
"23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be
seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."
Many Bible scholars believe that the 70
years represent 490 years (70x7=490 years).
One of the most well known examples of the use of the number 70 in the Bible were the 70 years that God exiled Israel to Babylon.
Jeremiah 25:10-11
10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall
serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
God also used the number 70 to count the years in some of His prophecies. In this example, God used the number 70 to number His wrath against Tyre.
Isaiah 23:15-17
"15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be
forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king:
after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
16 Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth."
God used 70 years to time His wrath upon the city of Tyre.