God appointed Nebuchadnezzar as His servant to punish. God declared that He would send Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon against the land of Judah and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. God would devote them to destruction and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. God gave all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and gave him also the beasts of the field to serve him. All the nations would serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land came. If any nation or kingdom would not serve Nebuchadnezzar and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, God would punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence until He had consumed it by his hand. God stated that He would send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and set his throne above certain stones and that he would spread his royal canopy over them. From these instances God made Nebuchadnezzar His punisher. God was the judge and jury, but Nebuchadnezzar was His executioner.

God appointed Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon as His servant to punish Judah for their rebellion against His word. Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah along with the princes of Judah the craftsmen and the smiths from Jerusalem and brought them to Babylon. When Judah continued to rebel Nebuchadnezzar returned and brought the king of the Chaldeans against them. The king of the Chaldeans killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and showed no compassion on young man or virgin on the aged or the weak. He gave them all into his hand and took all the articles from the house of God the treasures of the house of the Lord the treasures of the king and of his leaders to Babylon. He burned the house of God broke down the wall of Jerusalem burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious possessions. Those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia. Nebuchadnezzar took what remained of the weak back to Babylon to be his slaves.

God appointed Nebuchadnezzar as the conqueror to punish the people of Judah. God called and sent Nebuchadnezzar against them from the east because He was angry at their lack of repentance. The people would not have peace with Nebuchadnezzar. God had decreed through Isaiah and Jeremiah that Babylon would conquer Judah. Jeremiah advised making peace with Babylon because this was what God had called and sent against the nation. The king rejected this advice in favor of peace with Egypt.