[588] Achashverosh, Esther viii. 10; perhaps connected with _Kshajârsha_, "eye of the kingdom" (_Corp. Inscr. Sem._, ii. 125). [589] By "the books" is here probably meant the Thorah or Pentateuch, in which the writer discovered the key to the mystic meaning of the seventy years. It was not in the two sections of Jeremiah himself (called, according to Kimchi, _Sepher Hamattanah_ and _Sepher Hagalon_) that he found this key. Jeremiah is here _Yir'myah_, as in Jer. xxvii.-xxix. See Jer. xxv. 11; Ezek. xxxvii. 21; Zech. i. 12. In the Epistle of Jeremy (ver. 2) the seventy years become seven generations (Χρόνος μακρὸς ἕως ἑππὰ γενεῶν). See too Dillman's _Enoch_, p. 293. [590] _Dan._, p. 146. Comp. a similar usage in Aul. Gell., _Noct. Att._, iii. 10, "Se jam _undecimam annorum hebdomadem_ ingressum esse"; and Arist., _Polit._, vii. 16. [591] See Fritzsche _ad loc._; Ewald, _Hist. of Isr._, v. 140. [592] The writer of 2 Chron. xxxv. 17, 18, xxxvi. 21, 22, evidently supposed that seventy years had elapsed between the destruction of Jerusalem and the decree of Cyrus--which is only a period of fifty years. The Jewish writers were wholly without means for forming an accurate chronology. For instance, the Prophet Zechariah (i. 12), writing in the second year of Darius, son of Hystaspes (B.C. 520), thinks that the seventy years were only then concluding. In fact, the seventy years may be dated from B.C. 606 (fourth year of Jehoiakim); or B.C. 598 (Jehoiachin); or from the destruction of the Temple (B.C. 588); and may be supposed to end at the decree of Cyrus (B.C. 536); or the days of Zerubbabel (Ezra v. 1); or the decree of Darius (B.C. 518, Ezra vi. 1-12). [593] Lev. xxv. 2, 4. [594] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. See Bevan, p. 14. [595] See Cornill, _Die Siebzig Jahrwochen Daniels_, pp. 14-18. [596] The LXX. and Theodotion, with a later ritual bias, make the _fasting_ a means towards the prayer: εὑρεῖν προσευχὴν καὶ ἔλεος ἐν νηστείαις. [597] Ewald, p. 278. The first part (vv. 4-14) is mainly occupied with confessions and acknowledgment of God's justice; the last part (vv. 15-19) with entreaty for pardon: _confessio_ (vv. 4-14); _consolatio_ (vv. 15-19) (Melancthon). [598] Besides the parallels which follow, it has phrases from Exod. xx. 6; Deut. vii. 21, x. 17; Jer. vii. 19; Psalm xliv. 16, cxxx. 4; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15, 16. Mr. Deane (Bishop Ellicott's _Commentary_, p. 407) thus exhibits the details of special resemblances:--