414 Mark Leuchter Before my time, in the reign of a previous king, in Sumer and Akkad there were evil omens. The people who lived there only conversed (by) “Yes! No!” lying words. They brought their hands to the furnishings of Esagila, Palace of the gods, and gold, silver, gems they turned over to Elam in commerce. Enlil of the gods, Marduk was furious. He devised evil plans to devastate the land, to eliminate its people. The Arahtu Canal, [...] mighty high water, the likeness of a devastating flood swept over the city of his dwelling, his chapel, and turned (it) to ruins. Gods and goddesses who lived there went up to heaven. The people who lived there went, appointed to the mob, into slavery. 70 years, the allotment for its abandonment, he wrote, but compassionate Marduk, his heart quickly relented and he turned (it) upside down. He declared its inhabitation in 11 years. The inscription has led some scholars to conclude that the Biblical material draws from a general ancient Near Eastern 70-year code motif and develops it as a stereotyped trope in prophetic discourse (12), but this conclusion is problematic for two principal reasons. First, the vast majority of Biblical texts which rely upon the number 70 in addressing the fulfillment of prophecy date from the post-exilic period and make reference to the 70- year prophecy of Jeremiah as a completed cycle of time (13). An exception to this is Daniel (Dan 9,2), though the author still relies on the Jeremianic source text, appropriating Jeremiah’s prophecy for purposes of apocalyptic rhetoric. The Isaianic passage is different, though, as it is the only passage that presents itself as antedating the Jeremianic prophecy. While its surface features suggest some typological connection, there is nothing in the text to suggest any dependence upon the Jeremianic tradition or an association with the other prophetic and historical texts that seem to deal with Jeremiah’s proclamation in an overt fashion. The second problem relates to the Akkadian source material which many scholars cite as evidence of a broad cross-cultural usage of the 70-years motif (14). There is no known text beyond the Esarhaddon inscription in question that employs an oracle, curse, or blessing expressing the 70-year terminology (15). The sudden symbolic significance of the number 70 arising in Esarhaddon’s reign and limited thereto seems an unlikely development unless it served some purpose specific to his political interests. It is generally accepted that the reason for this inscription was to designate a divine turning (12) So also M. WEINFELD, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford 1972) 145-46. (13) Hag 1,2; Zech 7,5. For Hag 1,2 as a reference to Jeremiah’s prophecy, see H. TADMOR, “The Appointed Time Has Not Yet Come: The Historical Background of Haggai 1,2”, Ki Baruch Hu. Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical and Judaic Studies in Honor of Baruch A. Levine (ed. R. CHAZAN – W.W. HALLO – L. SCHIFFMAN) (Winona Lake, IN 1999) 401- 408. See also the references in Ezra 1,1; 2 Chr 36,22, which many scholars take to refere to Jeremiah’s 70-year prophecy. See, among other, S. FROLOV, “The Prophecy of Jeremiah in Esr 1,1”, ZAW 116 (2004) 595-601. For a critique of these positions, see M. LEUCHTER, “Jeremiah’s 70 Year Prophecy and the ymq bl/˚çç Atbash Codes”, Bib 85 (2004) 503-505. (14) See, e.g., WEINFELD, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School, 145-46. (15) B.N. PORTER (private communication) notes the conspicuous absence of this motif in other neo-Assyrian literary records.