Hi Kay,
   I'm sending this to fivedoves because there may be others who are interested in this subject. But I will also send it to your personal email address, plus a request for your mailing address (which I also lost when my computer crashed), because I have some time charts which contain the Jubilee count which I would like to send to you. But here, let me address the question of the incident in the 14th year of Hezekiah. Yes, it does indeed confirm a Sabbath year, but not a Jubilee year. That we must get from other sources.
   Many people think that this incident with Hezekiah is describing a Sabbath year followed by a Jubilee year, because it appears to indicate two years of rest for the land. Not so. We must look at the circumstances and the events of that time. Hezekiah was in distress because Sennacherib's army was surrounding Jerusalem. But Hezekiah was told that he would have 15 more years, and that Sennacherib's army would fail to capture Jerusalem. So Hezekiah asked for a sign from God (as if God's word was not enough in itself). The sign was that the shadow on the sundial would go back ten degrees. This was not a sundial as we know it, but it was a set of steps on which the shadow moved up and down according to the angle of the sun. The only natural phenomenon which will cause this to go forward or backward is a solar eclipse. And there was indeed a solar eclipse in that area on March 5, 702 B.C. Along with the sign of the shadow on the steps, God told Hezekiah that the people of Jerusalem would not be able to harvest a crop that year and that the following year they would neither sow nor reap. The first year they would not be able to harvest a crop because Sennacherib's army was camped outside Jerusalem, and as all invading armies did, they ate the produce of the land. The next year -- 701 B.C. -- was a Sabbath year, so they would neither sow nor reap. Sowing time was in the autumn, so they would not have planted seeds in the autumn of 701.
   This was not followed by a Jubilee year. This Sabbath year was the 101st Sabbath from the beginning of the count in 1407-1406 B.C., and it was the 3rd Sabbath year of the 15th Jubilee. The Jubilee period was from 721-720 B.C. to 672-671 B.C. This is the way they counted Jubilees -- they considered the whole 49 year period as the Jubilee of the next number, so any sabbaths that came within that 49-year period were said to be of the next Jubilee. It sounds confusing, but it really isn't. It's like saying I am six months into my 79th year, meaning that I am 78 plus six months. So the incident with Hezekiah happened on the 3rd Sabbath Year of the 15th Jubilee. The actual 15th Jubilee Year would not happen until the end of four more Sabbath Years.
   No, the rest of the Jubilee Years are not lost to us. As I mentioned in my last letter, the Talmud records the 16th Jubilee as happening in the year 623-622 B.C. at the time of Josiah's great passover. The Talmud also records the 17th Jubilee as being in the year that Ezekiel saw his temple vision in 574-573 B.C. Thus there is indeed 49 years between these two recorded Jubilees. And because we are given the year in B.C. dates, we can count backward and forward and arrive at the beginning date (1407-1406 B.C. (the time when Joshua led he Israelites across the Jordan). (Bear in mind that we have to add a six month period to the first segment of the count, because they crossed the Jordan in the spring, and the first Sabbath year began in the autumn.)
   Using this same count, we can project forward in time and realize that the 70th Jubilee Year will happen in A.D. 2024-2025.
   However, this is not the way they count the Jubilee Years today, because when they returned from the Babalonian captivity they started a new Sabbath and Jubilee count. However, I think it is significant by the original count, that the 70th Jubilee period is from 1975-1976 to 2024-2025 -- this makes the middle of the 49-year period to be the Sabbath Year A.D. 2002-2003.
   I have some supporting evidence charted for easy understanding. I'll send it to you by snail mail.
 
Bonnie Gaunt