Not all the people went back to Jerusalem, but all might have gone. If all Israel had learned the lesson designed by the captivity, then the long-deferred fulfillment of the promise might speedily have taken place; for up to the time of the beginning of the captivity the only definite time of prophecy was the period of seventy years. But just as the people were really in Babylonian captivity—that is the bondage of pride and self-confidence—before the carrying away by Nebuchadnezzar, even so they remained in the same captivity after the close of the seventy years. God foresaw that this would be the case, and so toward the close of that period He gave Daniel a vision, in which another time was fixed. EVCO 479.1