2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of Yihvah came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.
Jeremiah…seventy years – as prophesied in Jer 25:11,12; 29:10.
desolations – without the temple, prefiguring the desolation of God’s Church, the abomination of desolation. See notes at Zech 1:12. The word “desolation” in Jer 25:11, and Dan 9:2, tells us that the seventy-year period began when Jerusalem was “desolated,” and that is when the temple was also desolated. The Temple at Jerusalem was destroyed in the summer of 586 BC; and will be rebuilt, and dedicated in the spring of 516 BC, according to Ezra 6:15.