The midrashic retelling of the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE preserves an image that belongs to nightmares. The high priest stood in the burning courts of the Beit HaMikdash, looked at the flames climbing the walls, and spoke.
"Now that the Temple is destroyed, there is no need for a priest to officiate." And he threw himself into the fire and was consumed. When the surviving priests saw what he had done, they gathered their harps and musical instruments, climbed into the flames, and followed him. The melodies of the daily service ended inside the fire that ended the sanctuary.
Outside, those of the people whom the Babylonian soldiers had not killed were being bound in iron chains and loaded with the plundered vessels of the Temple to carry them as spoil into captivity. The ones chosen to build with the sacred vessels were now forced to haul them as slaves.
The prophet Jeremiah returned to Jerusalem and joined his brethren on the road of exile. They walked almost naked. At a place called Beit Kuru, Jeremiah managed to obtain proper clothing for them. Then he turned and spoke to Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans himself.
"Do not imagine," he said, "that by your own strength you overcame the people chosen of the Lord. It is their iniquities that have condemned them to this sorrow. You are the rod; you are not the Judge."
This is the theology Jeremiah preached his whole career (see Jeremiah 25 and 29). The empire is never the real victor. Israel's exile is Israel's accounting, and the Babylonian sword is only the instrument — held in a hand not its own.