John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 25:11

"And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." — Jeremiah 25:11 (ASV)

Here the Prophet mentions the restriction I have spoken of, and so he lessens the severity of their punishment. It is, therefore, a kind of correction; not that he changes anything, but by this kind of correction, he only explains what he previously meant by perpetual desolations.

He says, The whole land shall be a waste and an astonishment, or as some translate it, “a desolation.” The word שמם indeed means to lay desolate and also to astonish; but since he had recently used the word in the sense of astonishment, I see no reason to change its meaning here, especially since it is connected with חרבה, charebe. But as for the main point of the passage, there is not much difference whether we say the land will be a desolation or an astonishment, for it was to be a solitude—reduced to a desolation or a wilderness.

And serve shall these nations the king of Babylon seventy years. With this, the Prophet concludes his prophecy concerning the future calamity of the people: that the land would be reduced to a solitude, so that it would make everyone passing through it astonished, or that it would become a horrid spectacle because of its desolation.

The fact that a time of seventy years was set was a testimony of God’s paternal kindness toward his people—not indiscriminately toward the whole multitude, but toward the remnant of whom he had spoken elsewhere.

Therefore, the Prophet means that however grievously the Jews had sinned, God would still carry out only a temporary punishment. For after seventy years, as we will see, he would restore them to their own country and repair what they had lost: the habitation of the promised land, the holy city, and the Temple.

This is more fully expressed in the next verse.