20 He carried off captive to Babylon those who escaped the sword,+ and they became servants to him+ and his sons until the kingdom* of Persia began to reign,+ 21 to fulfill Jehovah’s word spoken by Jeremiah,+ until the land had paid off its sabbaths.+ All the days it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill 70 years.+

1 In the first year of King Cyrus+ of Persia, in order that Jehovah’s word spoken by Jeremiah+ would be fulfilled, Jehovah stirred the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his kingdom, which he also put in writing,+ saying:

2 “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says, ‘Jehovah the God of the heavens has given me all the kingdoms of the earth,+ and he has commissioned me to build him a house in Jerusalem,+ which is in Judah. 3 Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of Jehovah the God of Israel—he is the true God—whose house was in Jerusalem.*

2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, discerned by the books* the number of years mentioned in the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah the prophet to fulfill the desolation of Jerusalem,+ namely, 70 years.+

12 So the angel of Jehovah said: “O Jehovah of armies, how long will you withhold your mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah,+ with whom you have been indignant these 70 years?”+