A third view, espoused by T. C. Gordon,7 but one that has not found many adherents, is that the “thirteenth year” (1:2) is a scribal error for “twenty-third” year. The difference between the two spellings in Heb. is simply the pl. ending on the word for “ten” (an ־ים -im, ending form), making it the word for “twenty” plus the word for “three.” If this view is correct, then Jeremiah began his preaching in the year 617 BC, just as Nabopolassar of Babylon began his attack on Assyria and initiated what