Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4

Even though God would use the Chaldeans to discipline his people, their access was limited by his mercy and subject to his covenant. He allowed this violent, sinister, drunken, insatiable, insidious, usurious, and idolatrous nation to run roughshod over his people only so long. He still hated them, and he would let them bury themselves.

It’s interesting to remember that the Chaldeans were conquered by the Persians while preoccupied in a bacchanalian feast, where they were mocking God.  See Daniel 5:1-4 below.

Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand. When Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God which was in Jerusalem; and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

“Therefore it says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6

Live by by faith and be faithful. That’s all he asks of us. Try not to learn the hard way.