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1.Issued by Cyrus in the year 536 B.C. This decree is recorded in the first chapter of Ezra. It went unfulfilled. (18:3) 2.Issued by Darius in the year 519 B.C. This decree is recorded in the sixth chapter of Ezra. It also went unfulfilled. Only the Temple was rebuilt. (18:4) 3.Issued by Artaxerxes in the seventh year of his reign in the year 457 B.C. This is recorded in the seventh chapter of Ezra. It was fulfilled by the fourth decree. (18:5) 4.Issued by the same Artaxerxes in the year 444 B.C. This is recorded in the second chapter of Nehemiah. This decree fulfilled the third. (18:6) Most of the students of Scripture accepted the third decree.. They reasoned that since the fourth decree was merely and extension of the third, and was issued by the same king it was in reality the same decree. Therefore, they favoured the decree issued in 457 B.C. (18:7) ..From the issuing of the decree of Artaxerxes in the year 457 B.C. until the time of the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ, there would be appointed 70 weeks, 490 days-- or in prophecy, 490 years.
(18:8)
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