Jeremiah 51:50

Remember. Jeremiah’s message emphasizes that uppermost in the mind of the Jews must be the thought of return to Palestine as soon as opportunity afforded. The importance of this injunction is seen in the fact that many years later, when Cyrus and his successors did allow those Jews who desired to return to do so, only a fraction of the nation responded to the call. Although in Jeremiah’s day the exiles were longing for their homeland, within two or three generations, toward the close of the 70 years decreed by God for their captivity (ch. 29:10), they had settled in Babylon; and experiencing reasonable prosperity, the majority refused to return to the rocky hills of Palestine with its ruined cities and villages.