Jeremiah 25:6, commentary and pictures

The warning is to Judah not to go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and not to provoke God to anger with the works of their hands and hearts, which is idolatry. It belongs to a call for every person to turn from his evil way, to amend his doings, and to heed the prophets. That call was given after God had spoken to them early and had sent all His prophets early and continually, only to have His counsel continually rejected. If they obeyed, He would do them no hurt, and they would dwell in the land given to them and to their fathers. The prophecy of which this warning is part is the prophecy Daniel studied to understand the seventy years of Jerusalem's desolation and captivity and the promised restoration of Israel.

Judah's apostasy and refusal to hear and heed God's words brought the announced judgments upon Jerusalem and Judah. Refusal to listen led to captivity as punishment for not heeding the word of the Lord. The Chaldeans were used as the instrument to chastise His disobedient people. The punishment was in proportion to their intelligence and to the warnings they despised.

God long delayed His judgments from unwillingness to humiliate His chosen people, in order to give them opportunity to repent. But persistent sin ultimately brings righteous judgment. His visitation of displeasure comes as a last effort to check them in their evil course. The same entreaty to repent and turn from evil ways, with the same faithful prediction of danger, warning, and reproof of sin, is given to erring professed followers now. They face the same temptation to scorn reproof, hate counsel, and turn a deaf ear, while retribution is mercifully withheld for a time but will not always be stayed and will visit iniquity with righteous judgment.