Because of the facts mentioned in the previous arguments, showing that the 70 years of Jerusalem’s desolation really was 70 years (not 50!), some have suggested that perhaps 587 BCE is correct, but the date of Babylon’s defeat is the one that is wrong. Perhaps, they say, that Jerusalem was destroyed in 587, lay desolate for 70 years, and then Babylon was conquered in 519 BCE at which time the exiles were released.
Of course, there is abundant secular evidence to show that 539 BCE is the date of Babylon’s defeat, and most importantly, such evidence is accepted by us because it does not contradict the scriptures. Aside from that, the 519 date is unscriptural.
If Babylon was defeated 20 years after generally accepted, that would push all events afterwards forward by 20 years also. This is because many historical dates are based on the date of Babylon’s defeat.
This would affect the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, the Seventy Weeks prophecy. The “word to go forth and rebuild Jerusalem” would have been given in 435 BCE, not 455 BCE. Hence, Jesus was born in 19 CE, baptized in 49 CE, and died in 53 CE. The destruction of Jerusalem by Rome would have subsequently occurred in 90 CE.
Either Jesus isn't the Messiah, Roman history is terribly unreliable, or these dates are simply wrong. The 519 BCE date is impossible, 539 BCE is the only acceptable and reasonable date for the overthrow of the Babylonian Empire, thus making 607 BCE the date for the destruction of Jerusalem 70 years earlier.