Another explanation: And you will quickly perish (Deuteronomy 11:17) — exile after exile. And thus do you find with the ten tribes, exile after exile. And thus do you find with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, exile after exile: They were exiled in the seventh [year] of Nebuchadnezzar, in the eighteenth [year], and in the twenty-third [year] (viz. Jeremiah 52:28). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Karcha says, "[There is a relevant] parable of robbers who enter one's field and cut down his standing grain, and he does not protest. They cut down his sheaves, and he does not protest — until they fill up their tubs and leave. And thus does it say, For there is no weariness to him that is set against her; at the first, he lightly afflicted the land of Zevulun, and the land of Naftali, and afterward he afflicted her more grievously (Isaiah 8:23)." Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai says, "Now if those of whom it stated, quickly, were not exiled quickly but rather only after [the passage of much] time, how much more so with those of whom, quickly, was not written, etc."
Another explanation: And you will quickly perish (Deuteronomy 11:17) — even though I am exiling you from the land [of Israel], be marked by the commandments, so that when you return, they will not be new to you. It is as Jeremiah said (Jeremiah 31:21), Set up signposts (tziyunim) for yourselves": These are the commandments, through which Israel are marked (metzuyanim). Make high heaps for yourself: [reminiscent of] the destruction of the Temple, as it states (Psalms 137:5), If I forget you, O Jerusalem, etc. (Jeremiah, Ibid.) Set your heart to the road, the way on which you came.: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, "My children, give heart to the ways in which you walked, and repent, and immediately you will return to your cities, as it is stated, Repent, O virgin of Israel — Return to these, your cities!"