FOR THE WORD TO BE FULFILLED

That the word of Yahweh might be fulfilled through the mouth of Jeremiah, until the earth had rejoiced; for all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were fulfilled.

Source

In the end it was fulfilled what your prophet Jeremiah had announced, the punishment of Jerusalem's destruction and exile, because of the continued sin of your people, and on the other hand the return to Jerusalem after seventy years. Both things seemed unthinkable to the minds of the people: that you would take away their blessings, and then remember them and restore them.

Those seventy years between punishment and the restoration of your word here call it rest, time to enjoy rest.

Is such a degree of sin that the human being can reach that the earth needs rest? So much disobedience, immorality, violence and idolatry can accumulate that it takes seventy years to recover? It was like leaving the land fallow for a year to rest seven years of work and harvest. Sin exhausts and wears out everything it touches.

Sometimes it seems to me that my generation has come to fill your patience in such a way and has squeezed this world in such a way, with its greed and injustice, that it also seems to need a time of rest, fallow, recovery.

Is there any way to avoid it? Stop the sin if we are still on time. Encourage your people to work harder in your vineyard.