²¹ The land enjoyed its sabbath rests;^(A) all the time of its desolation it rested,^(B) until the seventy years^(C) were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.

Cyrus Helps the Exiles to Return^(A)

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah,^(B) the Lord moved the heart^(C) of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:

¹¹ This whole country will become a desolate wasteland,^(A) and these nations will serve^(B) the king of Babylon seventy years.^(C)

¹² “But when the seventy years^(D) are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon^(E) and his nation, the land of the Babylonians,^[a] for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate^(F) forever.

⁵ “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted^(A) and mourned in the fifth and seventh^(B) months for the past seventy years,^(C) was it really for me that you fasted?