of _Nabonassar_ 227: and _in the fourth year of King _Darius_,
in the 4th day of the ninth month, which is the month _Chisleu_, when the
_Jews_ had sent unto the house of God, saying, should I weep in the fifth
month as I have done these so many years? the word of the Lord came unto
_Zechariah_, saying, speak to all the people of the Land, and to the
Priests, saying; when ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month
even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me?_ _Zech._ vii. Count
backwards those seventy years in which they fasted in the fifth month for
the burning of the Temple, and in the seventh for the death of _Gedaliah_;
and the burning of the Temple and death of _Gedaliah_, will fall upon the
fifth and seventh _Jewish_ months, in the year of _Nabonassar_ 160, as
above.

As the _Chaldaean_ Astronomers counted the Reigns of their Kings by the
years of _Nabonassar_, beginning with the month _Thoth_, so the _Jews_, as
their Authors tell us, counted the Reigns of theirs by the years of
_Moses_, beginning every year with the month _Nisan_: for if any King began
his Reign a few days before this month began, it was reckoned to him for a
whole year, and the beginning of this month was accounted the beginning of
the second year of his Reign; and according to this reckoning the first
year of _Jehojakim_ began with the month _Nisan_, _Anno Nabonass._ 139,
tho' his Reign might not really begin 'till five or six months after; and
the fourth year of _Jehoiakim_, and first of _Nebuchadnezzar_, according to
the reckoning of the _Jews_, began with the month _Nisan_, _Anno Nabonass._
142; and the first year of _Zedekiah_ and of _Jeconiah_'s captivity, and
ninth year of _Nebuchadnezzar_, began with the month _Nisan_, in the year
of _Nabonassar_ 150; and the tenth year of _Zedekiah_, and 18th of
_Nebuchadnezzar_, began with the month _Nisan_ in the year of _Nabonassar_
159. Now in the ninth year of _Zedekiah_, _Nebuchadnezzar_ invaded _Judaea_
and the cities thereof and in the tenth month of that year, and tenth day
of the month, he and his host besieged _Jerusalem_, 2 _Kings_ xxv. 1.
_Jer._ xxxiv. 1, xxxix. 1, and lii. 4. From this time to the tenth month in
the second year of _Darius_ are just seventy years, and accordingly, _upon
the 24th day of the eleventh month of the second year of _Darius_, the word
of the Lord came unto _Zechariah_,--and the Angel of the Lord said, Oh Lord
of Hosts, how long wilt thou not have