Jeremiah 25:9
Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
Jeremiah's announcement came in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, after more than twenty years of calling the people to turn back to God. The reason for the judgment was that Judah and the surrounding nations had rejected God's words, His counsel, and the warnings of His prophets. That rejection included provoking God to anger with the work of their hands and hearts and going after other gods to serve them. To execute chastisement God would take the families of the north, the Chaldeans including the Babylonians under Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, as His instruments.
They would be brought against this land and its inhabitants and against all the nations round about, with Jerusalem and Judah suffering first, followed by Egypt and many other nations, until God's purpose was fulfilled. The land would be utterly destroyed and made an astonishment and a hissing and perpetual desolations, an object of horror and scorn. This destruction is pictured as drinking the cup of divine wrath. The captivity and punishment were proportionate to the light, intelligence, and understanding the people had received and to the warnings they had despised.
God had long delayed the judgment but finally brought it as a last effort to turn His people from their evil course and to check them in it. The long delay came from unwillingness to humiliate His chosen people. The announcement belongs to a prophecy that plainly testifies God would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem and the captivity of Israel, with a sure promise of restoration and return. It was written very soon after the beginning of the Babylonian captivity, which began when Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel prayerfully studied this prophecy in books during the first year of Darius the Mede, more than sixty years after it was written. From it Daniel understood that the seventy years were nearing their close in 538 B.C. Though Daniel understood the plain testimony about the seventy years, he could not understand the relation of that period to the twenty-three hundred years to elapse before the cleansing of the sanctuary.