A closed door — Keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you.
Are you ready to go down this rabbit hole?
Insight named the kings and printed the long reigns.
One Watchtower already printed the three short ones.
Start from the year they still agree on —
the night the city of the Chaldeans fell.
Add the lengths. Walk the sum backward,
king by king.
When you reach the eighteenth year
of the builder of the hanging gardens,
what year remains?
No password is printed here. The answer is a year. You can get it from a book many readers already own.
References
Insight · Babylon Insight · Nabonidus w65 1/1 Insight · Evil-merodach Insight · Nebuchadnezzar 2 Kings 25:8
If you want to work the sum here — Insight plus one 1965 Watchtower
| King | Length they print | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Nabonidus | 17 years — last Neo-Babylonian king, city falls in 539 | Insight it-2 p. 457 |
| Labashi-Marduk | 9 months | w65 1/1 — Insight names him |
| Neriglissar | 4 years | w65 1/1 — Insight names him |
| Evil-merodach (Awil-Marduk / Amil-Marduk) |
2 years | w65 1/1 · Insight “Evil-merodach” |
| Nebuchadnezzar II | 43 years. Jerusalem burned in his 18th regnal year (2 Kings 25:8 calls it the 19th year, counting the accession year). | Insight it-2 p. 480 |
How to find him in Insight. Merodach is the Bible spelling of the god Marduk. Evil-merodach (2 Kings 25:27) is the same man Insight also writes Awil-Marduk or Amil-Marduk — “man / worshiper of Marduk.” Look under E in volume 1. Same last name as Labashi-Marduk. Merodach-baladan is an earlier king with the same god-name, not this walk.
The January 1, 1965 Watchtower (“The Rejoicing of the Wicked Is Short-lived”) prints the three short lengths in one paragraph: two years, four years, nine months. Insight’s Babylon article names those three kings but says little is known of the last two reigns. Both sides still treat 539 B.C.E. as the year Babylon fell. Add the lengths backward from that night. Do not use the years printed beside the lengths — only the lengths. The printed years are the part that moved.