Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year
Either from the last jubilee, as R. Joseph Kimchi F18, Jarchi, and Abendana; or from the time that the book of the law was found by Hilkiah the priest F19; so the Targum, which paraphrases the words thus,
``and it was in the thirtieth year after Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the law, in the house of the sanctuary, in the court under the porch, in the middle of the night, after the moon was down, in the days of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah;''or, according to Jerom F20, from the time of the prophet's birth, who was now thirty years of age, and was just entered into his priestly office; or rather it was the thirtieth year of Nabopolassar, or the father of Nebuchadnezzar: this was the twelfth year of the captivity, reckoning from the third of Jehoiakim, which was the first captivity, and from whence the seventy years are to be reckoned, and also the twelfth of Nebuchadnezzar's reign; and if two years are taken, as Vitringa F21 observes, from the twenty one years, which are given to Nabopolassar in Ptolemy's canon, in which Nebuchadnezzar his son reigned with him, there will be found thirty years from the beginning of Nabopolassar's reign to the fifth of Jeconiah's captivity, when Ezekiel began his prophecy, and which, as Bishop Usher F23, Mr. Bedford {x}, Mr. Whiston F25, and the authors of the Universal History F26, place in the year 593, before the birth of Christ: in the fourth [month];
``and I saw in the vision of prophecy, which abode on me, the vision of the glory of the majesty of the Lord.''The Arabic and Syriac versions read, "the vision of God".