Why the 70-year exile and not more? Reading Jeremiah, it occurred to me that the Israelite occupation of the land, including the time of the Judges, was around 800 years from the time they crossed the Jordan. God says the period of exile is due to them not giving the land rest like they were supposed to do (70 years for the 420 years prior) but the timeframe in question only seems to cover the period of the kings. Does this mean they obeyed that particular mandate during the time of the Judges? Otherwise, shouldn't the exile have been a lot longer? TIA
See https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/understanding-the-book-of-daniel/daniel-9/
This article quotes the Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary. The 70 years was “the exact number of years of Sabbaths in four hundred and ninety years, the period from Saul to the Babylonian captivity.&quot;

Disobedience to the Ten Commandments was judged by forty years of wandering in the desert.
Disobedience during the times of the judges was punished by periodic oppressions by neighboring peoples like the Moabites, Philistines, Canaanites, etc.
The exile was specifically a judgement against the kingdom of Israel/Judah, which began with Saul.

The cited article makes an interesting point: there were two overlapping 70-year exiles.

Seventy years from first deportation to Cyrus' edict permitting return.
Seventy years from destruction of Solomon's temple until the construction of a new temple.