Jeremiah 25:11 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

This prophecy is a famous prophecy in regard of its fixing the particular space of time in which the Jews abode in the captivity of Babylon, viz. seventy years. When they determined we are plainly enough told, Ezra 1:1, in the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia, but when they commenced is more disputed; for we read of three carryings into that captivity: the one in the third and fourth year of Jehoiakim, when it should seem that Nebuchadrezzar only carried away some few persons to be bred in his court, amongst whom were Daniel and the three children, Daniel 1:1,2, &c.; a second seven years after, in Jeconiah's time, 2 Kings 24:15,16; the last and most general eleven years after, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah: it seemeth most probable that the seventy years must be reckoned from the second; for Jeremiah, Jeremiah 29:1, &c., writing to those then in captivity, tells them, that when seventy years should be accomplished, God would bring them back. This is confirmed by Ezekiel, Jeremiah 40:1, where the fourteenth year after the taking of the city is expressly said to be the twenty-fifth year of their captivity.