Jeremiah 25:11 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Seventy years— Not only the captivity and restoration of the two tribes were foretold, but the precise time of that captivity and restoration was also prefixed and determined by our prophet. This prophesy was delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim; and this same year it began to be put in execution; for Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judaea, besieged and took Jerusalem, and made Jehoiakim his subject and tributary; transported the finest children of the royal family and of the nobility to Babylon, to be bred up there for eunuchs and slaves in his palace, and also carried away the vessels of the house of the Lord, and put them in the temple of his god at Babylon. Seventy years from this time will bring us down to the first year of Cyrus, when he made his proclamation for the restoration of the Jews, and for the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem. This computation of the seventy years appears to be the truest and most agreeable to Scripture. But if we fix the commencement of these seventy years at the time when Jerusalem was burned and destroyed, their conclusion will fall about the time when Darius issued his decree for rebuilding the temple, after the work had been stopped and suspended; or, if we fix their commencement at the time when Nebuzar-adan carried away the remainder of the people, and completed the desolation of the land, their conclusion will fall about the time when the temple was finished and dedicated, and the first passover solemnized in it. So that, as Dean Prideaux observes, taking it which way you will, and at what stage you please, the prophesy of Jeremiah will be fully and exactly completed concerning this matter. It may be said to have been accomplished at three different times, and in three different manners; and, therefore, possibly all might have been intended, though the first, without doubt, was the principal subject of the prophesy. See Bishop Newton's Dissertations, vol. 1: p. 201.