2 Chronicles 36:21
To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years. To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
The lying desolate of the land during the Babylonian captivity was its enjoyment of sabbaths, to fulfill seventy years. After the final overthrow of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, those not killed by the sword or executed at Babylon as traitors were carried to Babylon to live in servitude to him and his sons until Persian rule began, fulfilling the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah. Many died in the siege and by the sword, and the chief priests and officers and princes who remained were taken to Babylon and executed as traitors.
The verse places the later flight of the remnant to Egypt within the history of the people left after the Babylonian conquest. Its fulfillment is seen in the fate of the remnant that rebelled by fleeing to Egypt. Doom is pronounced on those who turn from divine counsel to Egyptian idolatry and they will not be spared, while pardon is promised to those who repent of folly and prove loyal and true. A small number escaping the sword will return from Egypt to Judah, so that all the remnant sojourning in Egypt will know that divine words stand.
The desolation of the land, the destruction of the temple, and the seventy years of captivity came because the people departed from God, transgressed His commandments, and did wicked acts. This fulfilled hundreds of years after Solomon built it the calamity warned would come on the temple if the people departed, though the promise had been that if he remained faithful and the people obeyed all the commandments the glorious temple would stand forever in splendor as evidence of the prosperity and exalted blessings resting on Israel for obedience. God allowed the captivity to humble and punish them. Before the temple was destroyed its fate as the pride and idol of Israel was made known and the captivity was revealed to a few faithful servants. Just before the destruction they in mourning removed the sacred ark containing the tables of stone and hid it in a cave because of the sins, where it remains hidden, never disturbed since and never to be restored.