In contrast to the usual policy of the Babylonians toward the cities they conquered, Jerusalem and its vicinity were emptied and left desolate, just as Jehovah had predetermined. Bible critics may question that Judah’s once-prosperous land was suddenly made “a desolate waste, without an inhabitant,” but there is admittedly no historical evidence, no records from this period, to prove otherwise. (Jer 9:11; 32:43) Archaeologist G. Ernest Wright declares: “The violence visited upon Judah is clear . . . from archaeological surveys which show that city after city ceased to be inhabited at this time, many never to be reoccupied.” (Biblical Archaeology, 1962, p. 182) William F. Albright agrees: “There is not a single known case where a town of Judah proper was continuously occupied through the exilic period.”​—The Archaeology of Palestine, 1971, p. 142.

Hope of release from the captivity was not to be found in Babylon’s policy of no return.