Jeremiah 25:11

and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon LXX have, "and they shall be servants among the heathen," thus omitting "these," and "the king of Babylon," and probably indicating the original form of the Hebrew, which, however, they render inaccurately, as the construction of the verb here gives the sense not serve, but make to serve. The meaning is that "the families of the north" shall bring the Jews and the other nations into bondage.

seventy years the approximate length of the Jewish captivity in Babylon as is clearly shewn by Jeremiah 29:10. It will have to be reckoned, not from the deportation of Jehoiachin's time (2 Kings 24:14-16), but from (604 b.c.) the 4th year of Jehoiakim to (537 b.c.) the return. It is quite sufficient to make an approximation to the number seventy. The Jewish love for round numbers and especially for one so significant in symbolism, as having for its elements seven and ten, would cause the number seventy to their ears when used in such a connexion to stand for any number not differing by much from that amount.