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Heeding Divine Warning Is WisdomThe Watchtower—1973 | March 1
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“At length it occurred in the twelfth year,* in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month of our exile, that there came to me the escaped one from Jerusalem, saying: ‘The city has been struck down!’”—Ezek. 33:21.
To an ordinary Jew or Israelite this news would have been heartbreaking. But Jehovah God prepared Ezekiel in advance for it. Jehovah knew that the escapee was near the end of his flight and about to make report. So on the evening of the day of that one’s arrival Jehovah spoke to Ezekiel from the standpoint that Jerusalem had already been destroyed and there were some survivors yet in the land of Judah.
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Heeding Divine Warning Is WisdomThe Watchtower—1973 | March 1
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There are eight Hebrew manuscripts besides the Syriac Version and some manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint Version that read “eleventh year” instead of “twelfth year.” This would mean that the fugitive from Jerusalem arrived during the latter half of December (Tebeth 5) in 607 B.C.E., or six months after Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians. (2 Ki. 25:2-4) If the months are counted on a spring-to-spring basis and the year reckoned on an autumn-to-autumn basis, Tebeth 5 of the “twelfth year” would also fall during the latter half of December in 607 B.C.E.
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