Thus saith Jehovah Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the heart of those that rise against me, a destroying wind;
Jeremiah's long word against Babylon opens with God Himself making the first move against the empire and against a strange, coded name — "Leb-kamai." Three questions follow: who is this destroyer, why does God turn on a power He had used, and how does He judge?
Why say this again? Commentators point to how Babylon looked to the world at the time.
God renews His warning against Babylon. Nothing seemed less likely than the fall of that proud city. It was the first city ever to win worldwide supremacy, over the lands where the civilization of that age held sway.
Older translations read "a destroying wind" here, and the writers quoted below follow that wording. The wind stands for a man. Kelly names him from verses 1–5:
This refers to the Medo-Persian conqueror. He would sweep away everything people valued in Babylon and among the Chaldeans.
"Leb-kamai" is one of Jeremiah's hidden names for Babylon. Commentators link it to another one, "Sheshach", and explain how such a name was built:
A mystical name used for Babylon. Jer. 25:26; Jer. 51:41; cf. Jer. 51:1. The meaning of the word is not known. According to Jerome, the name Babylon, from Babel, was made up of the letters B B L — the 2nd and the 12th letters of the Hebrew alphabet. These were changed into SH SH CH, the 2nd and the 12th letters counting from the end of the same alphabet. Later Jews knew this method well. Some have supposed that the Jews made this change so that they could speak of the judgements coming on Babylon without offending those who had carried them away captive.
The wind image comes from the farm. Jeremiah goes on to speak of winnowers sent to Babylon, and their tool explains the picture:
The fan was a small shovel. A worker used it to throw a batch of wheat up into the air, so that the wind could carry away the chaff (Isa. 30:24; Jer. 4:11). The fan also stands as a symbol for the judgements of God (Isa. 41:16; Jer. 15:7; Jer. 51:2), and for the power of the testimony of the Lord Jesus to separate people (Matt. 3:12; Luke 3:17).
Babylon had been God's own weapon against other nations. Later in the chapter He says so, in the older wording Kelly quotes:
"You were my battle axe, weapons of war: with you I have broken nations in pieces; and with you I have destroyed kingdoms. … And I have repaid Babylon and all the people of Chaldea for all the evil they did in Zion, before your eyes, says Jehovah." But this did not hold back His vengeance now.
This is a standing rule in God's dealings with nations, not a one-off:
In the way God governs nations, He may use one nation as His rod to punish another. We see this again and again in the Old Testament. But woe to the nation used this way if it grows proud of it. God rules with justice, so that nation will be justly humbled in its turn.
Kelly sees another purpose in this storm — a word to God's own people:
So it was good that God said this in the clearest way, and repeated it by a reversal men had never seen before. It was a sign that Jehovah had not left His people widowed, despite their sin and its punishment in their land.
This prophecy landed on the real city. Darby points to the message given to a man named Seraiah near the end of the chapter:
I cannot doubt that Jeremiah 50 and 51 apply to ancient Babylon. What is more, the testimony given to Seraiah says, "Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her."
The same fall also sets a pattern for something still ahead:
Israel and Judah had been unfaithful, so God handed the government of the world to Babylon. But Babylon failed. Its destruction set Judah free to return to their land. This was a kind of picture of the judgement of the last empire in a future day, when Israel will be fully restored and blessed.
- The wind is God's. The destroying wind is not chance or politics. God says, "I will stir up," and the storm answers to Him.
- The wind has a name. Hidden names like "Leb-kamai" let captives speak of Babylon's fall without offending their captors.
- The wind winnows. Winnowers throw the grain into the air and the wind carries off the chaff — a standing symbol of God's judgements.
- The wind turns. God breaks the battle axe He once swung against the nations. He humbles every nation He uses as His rod, if it grows proud.
- The wind frees. Babylon's fall showed God had not abandoned His people. It set Judah free to go home — a picture of a greater freeing still to come.
and I will send unto Babylon strangers, who shall fan her, and shall empty her land for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.
God announces that He will send winnowers to Babylon who will strip her bare on the day of trouble. The picture comes from the threshing floor: who are these winnowers, why is the world's greatest city treated like chaff, and what does God gain by emptying her?
To winnow, a farmer used a fan. That plain tool carries a wider meaning in Scripture.
The fan was a small shovel. The farmer threw a portion of wheat up into the air with it, so that the wind could carry away the chaff. Isaiah 30:24; Jeremiah 4:11. Scripture also uses the fan as a symbol of the judgements of God, Isaiah 41:16; Jeremiah 15:7; Jeremiah 51:2, and of the sifting power of the testimony of the Lord Jesus. Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17.
The verse does not name the winnowers. Commentators point to the conqueror who did the work.
The reference is to the Medo-Persian conqueror, who would make a clean sweep of everything that man valued in Babylon and among the Chaldeans.
Jeremiah 51 goes back over ground already covered in chapter 50. Why say it twice? Because the message was almost impossible to believe.
God renews His warning against Babylon. Nothing seemed less likely than the fall of that proud city. It was the first to win worldwide supremacy, and the civilization of that age flourished there. So it was good to say it in the clearest way… and this as a sign that the LORD had not widowed His people, despite their sin and its punishment in their land.
Babylon had been God's tool against Judah. That did not shield her when her turn came, and the sentence passed on her was final.
God pronounces judgements against the various nations that had been in contact with Israel. He had used some of them as His instruments, but afterwards He had to punish their pride, malice, and cruelty. The prophecy against Babylon was written in a book. Seraiah, a quiet prince, was to carry it to Babylon and read it there. Then he was to tie a stone to the book and throw it into the Euphrates. Babylon was to be desolate for ever.
Babylon never saw "the day of trouble" coming. The way the city fell matched the promise to empty her land.
Its downfall was unexpected… In B.C. 538 the enemy took the city in a remarkable way. They chose a night when the people were about to hold a festival, and the whole city gave itself up to drunkenness and wild living. They turned the water of the river out of its bed to make it shallow enough for troops to walk along. They found the gates open, and took the city.
Winnowing is never destruction for its own sake. The chaff goes so that the grain can be kept. Babylon's emptying also served a purpose beyond herself.
Israel and Judah had been unfaithful, so God entrusted the government of the world to Babylon. But Babylon failed. Its destruction set Judah free to return to their land. This was a kind of picture of the judgement of the last empire in a future day, when Israel will be restored and blessed in full.
The Lord Himself holds this fan, and it works in two directions at once.
In the passage that shows the Lord with the fan in His hand, the chaff is burnt up with unquenchable fire, and the wheat is gathered into the garner. This passage applies first to a future separation of the chaff on the earth. Then all Gentile glory will become like "the chaff of the summer threshing floor," the Lord's own floor will be swept clean, and the wheat will be gathered into the garner. Yet it also has its present application.
after_note_removed: none "What is the chaff and the wheat, says the LORD?" may be a fitting question at all times. It fits not only the falsehood that mimics truth, but where there may be the form of godliness apart from the power.
- Chaff named. The winnower's fan was a shovel that tossed grain into the wind. Scripture turns it into a symbol of God's judgements.
- Chaff earned. Babylon had served as God's instrument, but God still punished her pride, malice and cruelty.
- Chaff blown. The conqueror swept away all that Babylon valued. The city fell on a festival night, through a drained river and open gates.
- Wheat kept. Emptying Babylon set Judah free to go home. It also pictures the judgement of the last empire before Israel's blessing.
- Fan raised. The Lord still holds the fan. So the question "What is the chaff and the wheat?" belongs wherever there is a form of godliness without the power.
Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his coat of mail; and spare not her young men destroy utterly all her host.
Jeremiah 51 opens with God announcing a destroying wind against Babylon, and verse 3 is the battle order inside it: bow, armour, young men, whole army. So who gives this command, and why is a whole army marked out for destruction?
The verse names no king and no nation. Commenting on verses 1 to 5 together, one writer says who is in view:
The reference is to the Medo-Persian conqueror, who should make a clear riddance of all that man valued in Babylon and among the Chaldeans.
One small Hebrew word decides how the first half of the verse reads. One reading arms the attacker; the other disarms the defender. The ESV takes the second: the archer must not bend his bow. The same writer sets out both readings, and shows where the disagreement ends:
Some read this word not as the preposition "to" but as the negative "not." Under that second reading, the verse would begin with a call to Babylon's defender not to bend his bow, and not to be proud of his coat of mail. The same verse would still close, as everyone agrees, with a charge to the followers of Cyrus not to spare their enemies.
So commentators differ on the first clause. Either way, the end of the verse is clear: Babylon's army is doomed.
The verse is all armies, arrows and armour. Reading chapters 50 and 51 together, one commentator puts the human instruments in their place:
I think anyone who reads these two chapters carefully must see that they describe one judgment on the Babylon on earth, with the lasting results of that judgment, as when He overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. But whoever the instruments were, the judgment was God's.
The same chapter later names what moved the Medes and what they were avenging:
Babylon needed all its military equipment now. Jehovah had roused the spirit of her northern enemies against her, and had resolved to destroy her. So the prophet says, "Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: Jehovah has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. His purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of His temple."
Babylon's own soldiers had once done this work to other nations, and God says He did it through them. That past usefulness buys her nothing:
"You were My battle axe, weapons of war. With you I have broken nations in pieces, and with you I have destroyed kingdoms… And I have repaid Babylon and all the people of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion, in your sight, says Jehovah." But this did not hold back His vengeance now. "Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says Jehovah, you who destroy all the earth."
Two verses later, the chapter turns to Israel. The ruin of one nation is the comfort of another:
Chapter 51 goes deeper still into the moral degradation of Babylon, but the deliverance of God's people is still in view. Men may think that He is showing very little care for them. But He assures them, "Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the Lord of hosts." He will deal with them, He will judge Babylon, and He will repay.
Commentators differ on how far these chapters look ahead. One sees more in them than the fall of one ancient city:
Many details in Jeremiah 50 and 51 show us that there is more in the mind of the Spirit than the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus and the partial restoration of Israel afterwards… The day is still future, as Revelation 18 shows, when "every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon" (Jer. 51:29), and when at last "Babylon shall sink and shall not rise" again (Jer. 51:64).
That reading shapes how he uses these chapters today:
Babylonish principles are widespread today. As we come to see how God judges this system, we understand it, and that keeps us clear of it… We see that the Lord has purposed to judge it, to overthrow it altogether, and also that He will save His people from its power. About this it is said, "THEIR REDEEMER IS STRONG" (Jer. 50:34).
- Command — Spare no young man, destroy the whole army: the order sweeps away everything Babylon valued.
- Reading — Commentators differ on the first clause. It either tells the attacker to draw, or tells Babylon's defender not to. All agree on the second half.
- Hand — Whoever the instruments were, the judgment was God's. He roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes. It was the vengeance of His temple.
- Reversal — Babylon had been God's battle axe, used to break nations. Being once useful to Him did not hold back His vengeance when her turn came.
- Comfort — The same chapter that dooms an army says Israel is not forsaken. Their Redeemer is strong to save His people out of that system, which Revelation 18 shows sinking for the last time.
And the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.
In Jeremiah 51 God raises a destroying wind against Babylon, and verse 4 gives the result: the dead lie in Chaldean fields and in Babylon's streets. Who kills them, why God repeats this sentence, and what it means for His people in exile — commentators take up each question.
Verse 4 reports the dead but not who killed them. Commentators point to the conqueror God used.
The reference is to the Medo-Persian conqueror, who should make a clear riddance of all that man valued in Babylon and among the Chaldeans.
The same writer notes that one clause in the surrounding verses has been read two ways, either as a charge to Babylon's defender or to her attackers:
Some read this not as the preposition but as the negative. The difference in sense resulting from the latter would be that the verse would begin with a call to the defender of Babylon not to bend his bow, nor to be proud of his coat of mail; while the same verse would close, as admitted on all sides, with a charge to the followers of Cyrus to spare not their enemies.
Chapter 50 has already announced Babylon's ruin. Chapter 51 says it again, and at length.
God renews His warning against Babylon. Nothing seemed less likely than the fall of that proud city. It was the first to win world-wide rule, and the civilization of that age was centred there. So it was good to say it as clearly as possible, and to say it twice — a reversal of a kind men had never known before — as a sign that Jehovah had not widowed His people, in spite of their sin and its punishment in their land.
The very next verse turns from Babylon's dead to Israel's standing before God. To people in exile, His care was hard to see.
Chapter 51 goes deeper still into the moral corruption of Babylon, but the deliverance of God's people is still in view. Men may think He is showing very little care for them. But He assures them: "Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, the Lord of hosts." He will deal with them, He will judge Babylon, He will repay.
Jeremiah's book begins and ends with slain bodies — but not the same bodies, and not in the same land. One writer traces the turn:
This part of the prophecy ends by foretelling God's judgment on Babylon and Israel's deliverance. Jeremiah began by foretelling God's judgment from Babylon and Israel's captivity. At the end, Israel, not Babylon, is the power God will use! "You are My battle axe and weapons of war: for with you will I break in pieces the nations, and with you will I destroy kingdoms" (Jer. 51:20). On the other hand we read, "As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth" (v. 49).
(The ESV puts verse 49 this way: "Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.")
Once the streets are described as filled with the run-through, the next word is not explanation but escape. The city God once used against others is now the target.
Verse 6 calls on the Jews to hurry out of the guilty and doomed city. Jehovah once used her to take vengeance on others. Now she is the object of His vengeance herself. Her allies, when challenged to help, admit that her ruin is beyond repair.
One writer sets two calls side by side, centuries apart:
It is instructive to see this. Before the hour of Babylon's overthrow God calls through John to the same people (the Jews) as He does through Jeremiah: "Come out of her, My People" (Rev. 18:4). "Go out from the midst of Babylon" (Jer. 50:8); "Flee out of the midst of Babylon … My People, go out of the midst of her" (Jer. 51:6, 45). Their Redeemer is strong.
- Sentence — The dead in Chaldean fields and Babylon's streets fell by the hand of the Medo-Persian conqueror. He swept away everything Babylon valued.
- Certainty — Babylon's fall seemed the least likely event on earth. God gave the warning twice, so that no one could doubt it.
- Assurance — Those bodies prove that God had not widowed His people, even after their sin and its punishment.
- Reversal — Babylon made Israel's slain fall. The book ends with Israel as God's weapon and Babylon's slain filling the earth.
- Escape — The word after the slaughter is "flee." The city God once used is now the city to leave, and the same call goes out before the last Babylon falls.
For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of Jehovah of hosts; for their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
Jeremiah 51 opens with the sentence of death on Babylon. In the middle of the war language comes a word about the people Babylon had carried away. The verse answers the question every exile would ask: if our land lies in ruins and our guilt is real, has God finished with us? (Some commentators quote an older wording here: "though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel." That reading puts the guilt on Israel. The ESV puts it on the land of the Chaldeans.)
The announcement of Babylon's fall was, at the time, unthinkable. One writer reads the fall of the ruling city as a message to Israel about where they stood with God.
Nothing seemed less likely than the fall of the proud city. For the first time one city ruled the whole civilised world of that age. So it was good to say it in the clearest way, and to say it again. Men had never seen a reversal like it before. It was a sign that the Lord had not made His people a widow, despite their sin and its punishment in their land.
God struck His own people and He struck Babylon. The two blows had different ends in view.
The judgment on Babylon was going to be final. It would "sink, and shall not rise". How different are God's dealings with Babylon from His dealings with His own people. He chastened His own people to restore them — or, to be exact, to restore the part of the people on whom the discipline would work, that is, the remnant. Babylon, on the other hand, would receive a final judgment.
The exiles had every outward reason to think God had dropped them. One writer speaks to that very thought.
Chapter 51 goes deeper still into the moral degradation of Babylon, but the deliverance of God's people is still in view. Men may think that He is showing very little care for them. But He assures them: "Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD of hosts." He will deal with them, He will judge Babylon, and He will repay.
If the promise rested on Israel's performance, the second half of the verse would cancel the first. Commentators point to something else that holds it up: a covenant God makes and God keeps.
But God will not leave His people in this deplorable condition. After proving that they could produce no good fruit, He reveals Himself as their Redeemer. He takes on Himself the work of removing their iniquity, and gives them a new heart inclined to obey Him. These are the terms of the new covenant He makes with them. It stands in contrast with the old covenant made at Mount Sinai (Jer. 31:31-34). The old covenant offered obedience as the condition of blessing (Ex. 19:4-5); the new covenant has no "if" — it is entirely of grace; God does everything Himself.
The verse names the one the guilt is against: the Holy One of Israel. Both halves of that title matter here.
This name is full of blessing for the chosen descendants of Abraham. It reminds us of God's character, which nothing can break. It also reminds us of His settled purpose to bless the people despite all their rebellion. God cannot pass over sin lightly. He takes it away righteously, by means of a perfect sacrifice. And He does it in such a way that, in righteousness, His love can flow freely to the objects of His grace — poor, lost sinners!
Babylon's ruin was also the exposure of her gods. The God who used the rod was not of the same kind as the things Babylon worshipped.
Jeremiah 51:6 reveals the unchangeable faithfulness of God to Israel, in spite of the people's sins… the fall of Babylon was a judgment pronounced upon idolatry. The portion of Jacob — the Lord — might chastise His people, but He was not like the vanities of the Gentiles. After chastising them, He would bring forth His righteousness in contrast with the Gentiles who oppressed them.
- Not widowed. The fall of the world's strongest city was God's public sign. He had not put His people away, even while their punishment stood.
- Not forsaken. The verse admits the guilt in the same breath as the promise. It never denies the sin; it denies the abandonment.
- Not conditional. The security rests on the new covenant. It has no "if" in it, because God Himself removes the iniquity and gives the new heart.
- Not indifferent. He is the Holy One who cannot treat sin lightly, and the Holy One of Israel whose settled purpose is to bless them anyway.
- Not the same rod. Babylon falls and does not rise. God strikes His people to restore them — that is the difference between judgment and chastening.
Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; be ye not cut off in her iniquity for this is the time of Jehovah's vengeance he shall render unto her a recompence.
Jeremiah tells his own people to run from Babylon, the empire that had carried them away. Two questions follow: why must God destroy the city He once used, and why would His own people be "cut off in her punishment" if they stayed?
The exiles had begun returning home, but many had settled in and stayed. One writer notes who this call targets, and how it reverses Jeremiah's own earlier advice:
The exiles of Judah had left this land a short while before, but by no means had all of them gone up. This call was therefore aimed directly at those who had remained behind... The same Jeremiah who in the past had advised the people to submit to Babylon's yoke later urged them to flee from her.
Earlier in the book, Babylon's king is the Lord's servant. These closing chapters weigh what he and his city did with the power God gave:
God Himself raised up Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to be His servant. He gave him world power and rule. He took it from Jerusalem, His own city of earthly government, and gave it directly to Babylon. But these two chapters look at Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon by their own deeds. Instead of calling the king the Lord's servant, they name him with contempt "this Nebuchadnezzar" (Jer. 50:17), and Babylon "O destroying mountain" (Jer. 51:25). She had destroyed the earth instead of ruling it. She had corrupted the nations too. So God rejects her in these two chapters, and He settles the redemption of Israel and Judah.
The instrument becomes the target. As one commentator puts it, this verse calls the Jews "to hasten their escape from the guilty and doomed city, once used of the Lord in vengeance on others, now the object of His vengeance herself."
The verse names a moment: "the time of the LORD's vengeance." How could anyone know when it had come?
Jeremiah 51:6 reveals the unchangeable faithfulness of God to Israel, despite the people's sins. It was the time of the Lord's vengeance. When the time God indicated arrived, those who had ears to hear were to leave the city. Only those with spiritual discernment could know that time. Discernment let them apply the prophecy, and these two chapters set out its elements clearly enough, especially in the assaults of the nations.
Escape is not the end of the story. The passage that opens here ends with a rescued people telling out what God has done:
Babylon's fall is the justification of Judah, who then turns in heart to Zion, so that they might publish there the work of the Lord their God.
One writer explains what this call means once the actual city is gone:
In the last days the city of Babel will exist as little as it does today. But the godless principles that marked her will take on a form of enmity against Christ. So a system will arise in politics, business and religion that will be called "Great Babylon" (Rev. 17-18). Faithful believers must flee out of that "Babylon"... God gives three reasons that make it necessary to leave "Babel". First, the judgments will come over this city. Second, the faithful ones should not fall under this judgment (Rev. 18). Third, those who carry the vessels of the Lord, to whom He has entrusted His testimony, cannot walk together with the unclean idols (Isa. 52).
One writer weighs the two motives such a call gives:
The receiving of her plagues is not the divine motive for separation. Men would be anxious enough about that. But the great thing that God looks for from His people is this — that they should not take part in her sins. I would put it to every Christian: how far is he in sympathy with God's mind about Babylon and its sins? How far does he feel the evil of it, and judge it?
One writer brings all this into the present day:
Babylonish principles are widespread today. As we see the judgment of God on this system, that understanding keeps us clear of it... We see that the Lord has purposed to judge it, to overthrow it altogether, and also that He will save His people from its power. And so it says of them, "THEIR REDEEMER IS STRONG" (Jer. 50:34).
- Call — Jeremiah spoke to God's people still settled in Babylon. The prophet who once told them to submit to her yoke now told them to run.
- Cause — Babylon destroyed and corrupted instead of ruling. So the city God once used against others became the target of His judgment.
- Clock — The hour had come. Only spiritual discernment could read "the time of the LORD's vengeance" from the signs the prophecy gave.
- Escape — Getting out was personal survival, and it ended in a freed people declaring in Zion what God had done.
- Echo — The call outlasts the city. Babylon's principles live on, and the deepest motive for leaving is not escaping her plagues but not sharing her sins.
Babylon hath been a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, that made all the earth drunken the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore have the nations become mad.
Jeremiah 51 turns to Babylon, the empire God had used to punish everyone else. Here her power is a cup in God's hand — so what was in that cup, and why does the hand that held it now break it?
Babylon's reach over the nations was never independent. The prophet's own words place her at both ends of God's dealings — first as the weapon, then as the target.
Verse 6 calls on the Jews to hurry out of the guilty and doomed city. Jehovah once used her to take vengeance on others (verse 7). Now she is the object of His vengeance herself (verse 8). Her allies, though challenged, admit her ruin is beyond repair.
This is a pattern, not a one-off. God takes up a violent power to strike, and then settles accounts with the striker.
God uses the pride and wickedness of the wicked to chastise His people; and afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian, God's rod to strike Israel, glorified himself against God, who breaks the rod.
The nations lost their reason because of what Babylon poured out. Two things marked the city — trade and idol worship. Which one is the real departure from God?
Babylon had this double character in ancient times: commerce and idolatry. First, it was "a land of trade, a city of merchants" — "the market of the world," as an able writer on these subjects calls it… Next, it was full of idolatry. See Isaiah 21:9 and Jeremiah 50:38: "It is a land of images, and they are mad over idols." So in Isaiah, Jehovah settles the dispute with these idols by judging Babylon… Let any thinking Christian say which is the real, full departure from God — commerce or idolatry. Then the aim of Satan and idolatry was to deny the glory and the oneness of God. Now his object is to deny the one glorious and effective work of the Mediator — the work by which God brings men back to Himself in grace.
How far back does Babylon's idolatry go?
The tower of Babel may well have been the start of man's slide into idolatry. We know that in later centuries people recognised Babylon as the original home and mother of idolatry: see Jeremiah 51:7 and Revelation 17:4-5.
The cup in the verse is golden, and that detail matters. The same picture returns in Revelation, where the metal and the contents tell opposite stories.
An outward grandeur and glory covers Babylon as a system. It attracts the natural heart and imagination of man, dazzling and bewildering him. But worse still, she holds in her hand a golden cup. How tempting! The cup is of gold, but its contents reveal how deep her wickedness has sunk… "Abominations" refer to idolatry, and "fornication" to gross corruption.
Why does a fallen empire still matter?
The actual Babylon of old was the shadow of what was to come.
The shadow and the reality are not the same. Revelation adds words Jeremiah never uses of the old city: her wine is "the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality."
The sin that brings her down still reminds us of Babylon, though it has its own added guilt… This later expression shows that Babylon here is not just a political power but a spiritual one. One who claims to belong to Christ has prostituted herself to the world for the sake of power. She has inflamed the nations with unholy principles, which play on men's passions — and those are easily stirred… But the time is at hand when these means will at last fail her. Babylon is fallen, and that fall is final. It is the judgment of God upon her. It is justice repaying centuries of corruption.
- God holds the cup. Babylon made the earth drunk, but God's hand held the cup. She carried out His vengeance on others, then became the object of it herself.
- God breaks the cup. He uses the pride of the wicked to punish His people, then destroys the instrument. The rod that boasts against Him gets broken.
- The cup carries idolatry. Babylon was famous for trade and for idols alike. Commentators call idolatry, not trade, the real departure from God — and that is why the nations went mad.
- The cup shines outside. Gold outside, filth inside. The splendour attracts and dazzles; you only see the contents by looking in.
- The cup passes on. Commentators read the old city as the shadow of a later Babylon — a spiritual power whose corruption ends in final judgment.
Babylon is suddenly fallen and ruined. Howl over her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
Jeremiah 51:8 sits in the middle of a long prophecy against Babylon. The greatest city in the world drops in a moment. Then the verse asks for mourning and for medicine, as if the ruined empire could still be healed.
No one expected Babylon to fall. That is why God said it so clearly in advance.
Nothing seemed less likely than the fall of the proud city. It was the first city ever to hold power over the whole world, everywhere the civilization of that age reached. So it was good to say it in the clearest way, and to say it again, by a reversal men had never seen before. This was a sign that Jehovah had not made His people a widow, despite their sin and its punishment in their land.
The way it happened matched the verse's word "suddenly."
Its downfall was unexpected. For 24 years after Nebuchadnezzar died, Babylon stayed the seat of the imperial court. In 538 B.C. enemies took the city in a remarkable way. They chose a night when the people were about to hold a festival, and the whole city would be given over to drinking and wild living. They turned the river out of its bed, so that it became shallow enough to let the troops pass along. They found the gates open, and took the city.
Does "suddenly" describe the fall, or the destruction that came after? One writer keeps the two apart.
She tried to revolt, was dismantled, and slowly decayed until she became a park for wild beasts… The truth is, the "suddenly" does not refer to the destruction, but to the fall. Babylon is suddenly fallen, and she is destroyed. Look at the passage and you will find that the suddenness belongs only to the fall. Literally: "Suddenly has fallen Babylon, and she shall be destroyed," or, prophetically, she has been destroyed. That is how the most exact translations render it, and so does the Septuagint. Alexander tried to restore it and make it the seat of empire, and died trying.
The balm in this verse was a real medicine.
The gum of the balsam bush, of great medicinal value. Gilead was noted for producing it. Scripture uses it as a proverb for the healing God had for His people if they really turned to Him. Jer. 8:22; Jer. 46:11; Jer. 51:8.
One writer traces the flow from verse 6 to verse 9:
Then verse 6 calls on the Jews to hurry out of the guilty and doomed city. Jehovah once used her to take vengeance on others (v. 7). Now she is the object of His vengeance herself (v. 8). So her allies, though challenged, admit her ruin is hopeless (v. 9).
Why does no healing come? The difference is between judgment and discipline.
The judgment on Babylon was going to be final. It would "sink, and shall not rise." God deals with Babylon in one way and with His own people in another. He disciplined His own people in order to restore them — or, to be exact, to restore the part of the people on whom the discipline would work, that is, the remnant. Babylon, on the other hand, would receive a final judgment.
Her fall did something for the people she had held.
Babylon's fall is the justification of Judah. From that point Judah turns in heart to Zion, to publish there the work of Jehovah their God.
One writer reads these chapters as reaching past Cyrus, and draws a use for today.
Many details in Jeremiah 50 and 51 let us see more in the mind of the Spirit than the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus and the partial restoration of Israel afterwards… Babylon's principles are widespread today. As we see God's judgment on this system, we will understand it and be kept clear of it ourselves.
The name Babylon belongs to a later city too, and both end the same way.
Both Babylons are doomed to everlasting desolation. The one has fallen; the other is sure to follow. There is "no healing of the bruise."
- Height. Babylon held power over the whole world. Her fall was the last thing anyone thought possible, which is why God said it in advance.
- Crash. The word "suddenly" belongs to the fall: one festival night, a drained river, open gates, and the city was taken.
- Balm. Balm was Gilead's healing gum. Jeremiah uses it as a picture of the healing God had ready for anyone who would really turn to Him.
- Refusal. The medicine is offered and then dropped. Her allies admit the ruin is hopeless. God's discipline aims to restore His people; this judgment is final.
- Release. Babylon's fall clears Judah's name and turns their hearts to Zion. It still warns anyone who stays inside a system God has already judged.
We have treated Babylon, but she is not healed forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto the heavens, and is lifted up to the skies.
Babylon's own helpers speak here: they treated her, she did not recover, and now they are going home. Their words raise a question every generation faces — when do God's people leave a thing instead of mending it?
The words are not God's diagnosis but the admission of those who stood with Babylon. In the flow of the chapter, the call to flee comes first. Then Babylon's own allies give her up:
Verse 6 calls on the Jews to hurry and escape from the guilty, doomed city. Babylon was once used by Jehovah to take vengeance on others (v. 7). Now she is the object of His vengeance herself (v. 8). So her allies, though challenged, admit her hopeless ruin (v. 9). ... Babylon's fall is the justification of Judah, who then turns in heart to Zion, to publish there the work of Jehovah their God.
The word "healed" looks back to the balm offered in verse 8. Balm was a real medicine, and in this book it carries a settled meaning:
Tseri: the gum of the balsam bush, of great medicinal value. Gilead was known for producing it. It is used as a proverb to describe the healing God had for His people if they would really turn to Him. Jer. 8:22; Jer. 46:11; Jer. 51:8.
So the failure is not in the medicine. It lies in the patient.
The last clause gives the reason the case is closed. Her guilt has piled up to the sky. One writer links this to Babylon in Revelation, where her sins also reach heaven:
She was now in her last stage, her sins had reached to heaven, and God had remembered her iniquities. So in Jeremiah 51:9, where her fall also comes before she is taken.
The chapter does not end in gloom. Heaven and earth sing when Babylon falls:
The judgment of Babylon "reaches to heaven" (v. 9). "The heaven and the earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for Babylon" (v. 48). Revelation 19 answers to this: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just; for He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth."
God restores some ruins. This one He does not. A waning moon comes back; Babylon does not:
Babylon never recovers her old light. Babylon is the corrupt woman who claims the credit of being the bride while she is false to Christ, a mere harlot with the kings of the earth... But her end will be judgment and destruction: no renovation for her; no new moon shining out in fresh strength and brightness. Babylon will never rise again.
Her end is not the world's end. One writer sets the two side by side:
When Jesus reigns, this poor world will be blessed and its curse removed. But spiritual Babylon, earth's great corrupter, is beyond all healing.
If healing is out, only leaving is left. One writer applies this to the corrupt system that carries Christ's name, and he is careful about what we are not asked to do:
We are not called to try to reform it, or to overthrow it. We are called to come out of it, so that we do not share in its sins. Babylon means "confusion." No word could better describe the terrible result when something that carries the name of Christ becomes a friend of the world, which is at enmity with God.
Leaving is not a small preference. One writer contrasts Lot with Abraham:
To man it often seems a small thing whether he is connected with evil or not, as long as he is personally safe. But how dishonouring such thoughts are to God! The people called to leave this evil system are God's people, as Lot was in Sodom, and God will never let His own perish. But Lot's outcome was very different from Abraham's. Lot was saved "so as by fire" and lost everything, while Abraham watched the judgment from the heights of Hebron. That is the difference between two kinds of people. Some walk in separation from evil. Others carry on happily with it, because they are sure of their own salvation.
- Diagnosis. Babylon's own allies give the verdict. They treated her, and she was not healed.
- Remedy. Balm stood for the healing God had ready for people who turn to Him. The failure lies in the patient, not the cure.
- Reason. Her guilt has stacked up to heaven. Her fall comes before her capture.
- Finality. Babylon never recovers her old light. No renovation, no second rise — yet the world itself will be blessed when Christ reigns.
- Response. She cannot be healed, so the call is not to reform her or fight her but to come out. Abraham watched from the heights; Lot escaped with nothing.
Jehovah hath brought forth our righteousness come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.
Judah's long years of captivity in Babylon looked like a verdict against them. Babylon's own fall overturns that verdict in public, and the freed people head straight for Zion to tell what God has done. (The ESV's "vindication" is "righteousness" in older translations — the wording the writers below use.)
The collapse of the city settles more than Babylon's power. It settles where Judah stands with God.
Babylon's fall is the justification of Judah, who then turns in heart to Zion, so that they might publish there the work of Jehovah their God.
The people call the righteousness theirs, yet the Lord is the one who brought it out. One writer connects their song to a name of Christ.
The people of God shall be brought to Zion where God will set the true King according to Psalm 2; and then they shall rejoice and say, "The Lord has brought forth our righteousness" (v. 10). That involves Christ being known as "Jehovah Tzidkenu."
"Jehovah Tzidkenu" means "the LORD our righteousness." Owning that name costs Israel something they had always refused to give up.
Israel shall yet acknowledge what they have so far always refused to own — that in the Lord they have righteousness and strength. They have always stumbled at this until now. "Being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness." But they shall do so in days to come.
Those who sing this song are already on their way out. Writers say the call to leave Babylon still stands today.
In the last days, the city of Babel will exist as little as it does today; but the godless principles that marked her will take on a form of hostility to Christ. So a system will arise in the political, commercial, and religious spheres that will be called "Great Babylon" (Rev. 17-18). Faithful believers must flee out of that "Babylon."
God does not leave His rescued people silent. The same pattern appears in Isaiah: He tells them to leave, then tells them to sing.
God rightly looks for true separation to Himself, and lasting joy and happiness are only found there, as now, in that path. For God no sooner says, "Go out from Babylon" (Isa. 48:20), than He adds: "With a voice of singing declare, tell this, send it out to the end of the earth; say, The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob."
The place of the telling matters. Zion must learn what kind of judgment this is, and who pressed the case.
The holy character of this judgment is to be known in Zion, for it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple (Jer. 50:28; 51:11). The Redeemer of Israel and Judah pleads their cause.
Commentators differ on the scope of Jeremiah 50-51. Some read details in these chapters as stretching past the ancient city.
Many details in Jeremiah 50 and 51 show us that there is more in the mind of the Spirit than the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus and the partial restoration of Israel afterwards. The day is yet to come when Israel is to be joined to the Lord in "a perpetual covenant which shall not be forgotten" (Jer. 50:5).
Others hold the chapters to the historical city:
I cannot doubt that Jeremiah 50 and 51 apply to ancient Babylon. Moreover, in the testimony given to Seraiah, it is said, "Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her."
- Judged. Babylon's fall is the courtroom moment. Her ruin is Judah's justification — God clears in public a people who had looked condemned.
- Justified. The people call it "our righteousness," but it is His doing — the King whose very name is "the LORD our righteousness."
- Surrendered. Israel owns that righteousness only by giving up the effort to build their own. That is the thing they always stumbled over.
- Separated. Only those who obeyed the call to leave sing this song. Babylon's godless principles still call for that same departure today.
- Declared. Rescue ends in testimony — not private relief, but a voice in Zion publishing the work of God, with singing.
Sharpen the arrows; take the shields. Jehovah hath stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; for his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for this is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple.
This verse opens with a battle order. Behind the weapons stands the Lord, who has moved the Median kings. And behind His purpose stands a reason: a house in Jerusalem that Babylon had ruined.
Who is being told to get ready? One commentator reads the rush to arms as Babylon's own, and points past her soldiers to God.
Babylon had need of all its military appliances now, because the Lord had roused the spirit of her northern foes against her, and had resolved to destroy her.
The Medes were on their way to becoming the next world power.
Cyrus the Persian was rising in power and subdued Astyages, but allowed him to reign as king... The kingdom was called at first that of the "Medes and Persians"... They conquered Babylon and Asia Minor. On the death of Astyages, Cyrus reigned alone. It became the second great empire of the Gentiles.
God stirring a king's spirit is not a one-off. One writer points back to Cyrus, whom Isaiah names as God's shepherd.
Let us pause for a moment. Whatever the outward appearances, the Lord holds the hearts of all men in His hands, and turns them wherever He will. He uses men of every rank as the instruments of His will. The very mention of Cyrus carries us a step further back. Isaiah, speaking in the name of the Lord, says of Cyrus, "He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfil all my purpose"; saying of Jerusalem, "She shall be built," and of the temple, "Your foundation shall be laid" (Isa. 44:28).
But God using a man does not make that man His own. One writer draws the line.
Cyrus is never called "the servant" of the Lord. He was His providential shepherd, for the sake of Israel His servant. ... Nor is it hard to see why this distinction matters, because even now God raises up providential authority in the world for the sake of the elect. Such authorities are called ministers of God, but never servants of Christ.
Why would God avenge a temple He let fall? One writer separates what God permitted from the way Babylon carried it out.
Then the wrath of God against the evils of His people condemned them to be carried away, and the destruction of the temple polluted His inheritance. God permitted it. The Babylonian king did it with a heavy hand. And upon Babylon will come the heavy hand of God's judgment, in the day when He carries out "the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance for his temple" (Jer. 50:28).
The vessels taken from that temple still mattered to God after the building fell.
God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the temple, after the glory had departed, and to take its holy vessels into Babylon. But in His own time God brought Nebuchadnezzar low. Then Belshazzar, with no reverence for holy things, challenged the God of Israel: he used the holy vessels to praise the gods of his own making. So God stepped in to vindicate the honour of His Name in the overthrow of Babylon and its irreverent ruler.
Human armies did the work here. One writer refuses to divide the credit.
I may add here that Jeremiah calls the destruction of the Babylon of that day by the Medes the work of the LORD of hosts, His vengeance, His day come, the day that He visits her. I think anyone who reads these two chapters closely must see one judgment described there on the earthly Babylon, with the lasting consequences of that judgment, as when He overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. But whoever the instruments were, the judgment was God's.
Commentators differ on how far these chapters reach. One writer sees a single judgment on the city of that day. Another sees principles that outlived the city and still work in the world now.
Babylon's principles hold wide sway today, and seeing God's judgment on this system keeps us clear of it with understanding. ... What belongs to Babylon is always ready to trap those who seek to exalt the Lord and call on Him out of a pure heart. But as we learn the mind of God, we are fortified against the advances of this lawless and superstitious system.
- Purpose — the Lord's purpose is against Babylon. The arrows and shields only carry out a decision already made.
- Stirring — God moved the spirit of the Median kings. He holds the hearts of all men, and turns them wherever He will.
- Instrument — Cyrus was God's shepherd for His people's sake. Rulers like him are ministers of God, never servants of Christ.
- Cause — the reason given is vengeance for His temple. God let His house fall, then judged the heavy hand that struck it and the misuse of its holy vessels.
- Reach — whoever the instruments were, the judgment was God's. And Babylon's principles are still worth knowing and avoiding.
Lift up a banner towards the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah hath both devised and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
Jeremiah 51:12 is a battle order shouted at the walls of Babylon: raise the flag, double the guard, post lookouts, set the ambush. Then comes the reason, and it turns the scene upside down. The attack was no accident of politics. God had already planned it, and already done it.
The verse belongs to a run of commands aimed at Babylon's fall. One commentator names the power behind the advancing armies:
Babylon had need of all its military equipment now, for the Lord had roused the spirit of her northern enemies against her, and had resolved to destroy her. So the prophet says: "Sharpen the arrows! Take up the shields! The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it."
The armies were not simply hungry for empire. Behind them stood a Redeemer with a case to settle.
It is not simply one nation, but a gathering of great nations that destroy Babylon: so in Revelation 17:16. Zion is to know the holy character of this judgment: it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple (Jer. 50:28; 51:11). The Redeemer of Israel and Judah pleads their cause. He is strong to overthrow their oppressors in judgment, as He did Sodom and Gomorrah. He is strong to deliver His people and give them rest.
The verse calls for a strong watch. Babylon already had defences on a scale that is hard to imagine.
The wall around the city is said to have been three hundred and fifty feet high and eighty-seven feet thick. A very wide ditch surrounded it too, kept full by the river Euphrates. With all this, and its many towers and gates of brass, the city seemed impossible to capture. And so it was, in man's account; but when God speaks all things are possible to Him, and many men do not think of this.
Babylon's watch was posted, and it still missed the enemy. The attack came by a road no one was guarding.
History tells us that Babylon's walls had tall towers set at intervals, as many as two hundred and fifty. From these towers the Babylonians could watch for their enemy, and they saw no sign of danger. Yet the enemy outside had done something very simple. The Euphrates ran right through the centre of the city. Great brass gates guarded it, so no one could get in by water. Cyrus, the Persian leader, used a very simple trick. The Euphrates bends near Babylon, so Cyrus cut a new bed for the water a few miles upstream. When darkness fell, they opened the sluices and sent the river down its new course. The old river bed at Babylon was left almost dry. The Persian troops marched quietly along it, under the brass gates, and took the city. So Jeremiah's word came true: a messenger ran to tell the king of Babylon that his city was taken at one end (Jer. 51:31).
The last clause speaks of a judgment still in the future as if it were already finished. History proved God exact.
The words of Jeremiah are really the words of the Lord through him. Their exact fulfilment proves that they came from God. They were fulfilled with such precision in public, private, and personal detail that no honest person can question them. What still awaits fulfilment will no doubt come to pass with the same perfection. Our God fixed the months and years. He timed the shining of the moon and of the sun. He spoke all the words of prophecy, and His word must be done.
This prophecy reaches past the city that fell long ago. The closing book of the Bible hands down the same sentence again.
In her fall Babylon only reaped what she had sown. "For this is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done" (Jer. 50:15). The same verdict is pronounced on the Babylon of the end time... "Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed" (Rev. 18:6).
- Planned. God's purpose came first. The armies only carried out what He "had both planned and done."
- Provoked. The cause was moral, not military: the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple.
- Prepared. Babylon's own walls, towers and brass gates made her look impossible to capture, in man's account.
- Pierced. The watchmen on two hundred and fifty towers saw no sign of danger; the river bed no one guarded became the road in.
- Paid back. The same measure reaches beyond the ancient city to a later Babylon, repaid double for what she did.
Thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, the measure of thy rapacity.
Jeremiah turns from the armies gathering outside the walls and speaks straight to the city itself, naming what she sits on and what she owns. Both are about to be taken from her, and the reason given is not military weakness but the full measure of her greed.
Why is Babylon addressed as a city living "by many waters"? One writer answers from the way prophecy uses water:
In the language of prophecy, the great sea always means masses of people. So Scripture describes Babylon (Rev. 17:1, 15; Jer. 51) as dwelling (v. 13) "upon many waters." These are peoples who at the time of the vision were not yet formed into kingdoms and empires, and so not yet recognised by God as prophetic objects.
Babylon is also "rich in treasures." One writer describes the same Babylon in Revelation, setting her wealth beside what she cares nothing for:
She sits enthroned in greatness, decked out in the glories of the world. But she does not have the affection of her deluded followers. There is display, but no reality. Her supreme regard is for gold (Rev. 18:12); her least concern is for the souls of men (v. 13).
The ESV ends the verse with "the thread of your life is cut." Older translations read "the measure of your covetousness" instead. One writer sets out what Babylon did with her hold over the nations, and what her fall means for God's people:
Chapter 51 goes deeper into the moral degradation of Babylon, but the deliverance of God's people is still in view. She had made the nations drunk so that they became mad; she had corrupted them with idolatry, the work of errors. Therefore the Lord will punish Babylon, which "dwells upon many waters" (v. 13; see also Rev. 17:1). Her end shall come.
God says "your end has come" before a single wall falls. In this chapter the attack goes back past the Medes to God Himself, and He calls it payment for what Babylon did to His house:
Babylon needed all her weapons of war now. The Lord had roused the spirit of her northern enemies against her, and He had resolved to destroy her. So the prophet says: "Sharpen the arrows! Take up the shields! The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for His temple."
The waters she sat among became the road her enemies walked in on:
No one expected her downfall. For twenty-four years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon stayed the seat of the imperial court. In 538 B.C. the city fell in a remarkable way. The attackers chose a night when the people were about to hold a festival, when the whole city would give itself up to drinking and wild living. They turned the river out of its bed to make it shallow enough for the troops to walk along. The gates stood open, and the city fell.
The lesson does not stop with one ruined city. One writer applies it to readers now:
The principles of Babylon are widely at work today. As we see the judgment of God on this system, we ourselves will be kept clear of it with understanding. This matters enormously for those who seek to exalt the Lord and to call on Him out of a pure heart. What belongs to Babylon is always ready to trap them. But as we learn the mind of God, we stand firm against the advance of this lawless and superstitious system.
- Waters — reach. The many waters are peoples and nations under Babylon's power, not just the rivers around her walls.
- Treasures — display. Her wealth bought greatness on show, with her highest regard for gold and her lowest for people.
- Greed — cause. She corrupted the nations she reached, and her greed has now reached its full measure.
- End — decided. The blow goes back past the Medes to the Lord Himself, as payment for what Babylon did to His temple.
- Waters again — the way in. Her enemies turned the river aside and walked in through its bed on a festival night. Babylon's ways still trap people today, and learning the mind of God keeps us clear of them.
Jehovah of hosts hath sworn by himself, I will assuredly fill thee with men, as with caterpillars; and they shall raise a shout against thee.
God takes an oath against Babylon while the city is still rich and strong, and He swears to fill her with invaders as thick as locusts. That raises two questions: why God swears at all, and whether His words stop with the Babylon of Jeremiah's day.
An oath normally borrows weight from someone higher. God has no one higher, so the guarantee is His own being — and the added word of assurance is for our sake, not His.
Why are men put on oath in the law courts of the land? It is because they are capable of lying... In happy contrast, Scripture tells us that it is "impossible for God to lie." God cannot do the things that would deny His being, nature and holiness. God cannot swear by one higher than Himself, so He swears by Himself... Why add the word surely? On the divine side there was no need for it at all. No word can add to God's trustworthiness. His word is His bond.
Another writer explains why God can safely bind Himself:
God could swear, for He was able to carry out what He promised. He also knew every consequence of what He pledged Himself to do.
The title in this verse runs through Jeremiah's book. It belongs to the Ruler above every earthly king, who punishes one nation through another and then judges that nation in turn.
Jeremiah shows us that the Lord is the true Ruler. Above all earthly kings, He is "the King of Eternity" and "the King of nations" (Jer. 10:7-10)... In chapter 46, Pharaoh Neco, King of Egypt, is punished according to the word of "the King whose name is the LORD of hosts" (v. 18). God carries this out through the King of Babylon, who is also used to take Israel into captivity. Yet Babylon's punishment must surely follow too, and Israel be set free again, "says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts" (Jer. 51:57).
The comparison is to a specific insect. Older translations call it a "caterpiller," but the word points to a kind of locust.
This is thought to be the 'hedge-chafer,' a species of locust. It "spoils [or spreads itself out] and flies away." It devours a great deal of plant growth, and pictures the enemies that would destroy Nineveh. The same Hebrew word is translated "caterpiller" in Psalm 105:34 and Jeremiah 51:14, 27.
The same swarm picture stands for invading peoples elsewhere in Scripture. One writer lists this verse among those places.
In verse 6 the locusts appear as a nation, mighty and without number, with lion's teeth. This confirms that they picture the Gentile nations of the future who would devastate the land. See also Numbers 13:33, Isaiah 40:22 and Jeremiah 51:14, where the same comparison is made.
The invaders came from the north, and God is the one who set them moving.
Babylon needed all its military equipment now. The Lord had stirred up the spirit of her northern enemies against her, and had decided to destroy her.
So the armies that raise the shout never own the judgment behind it.
In Jeremiah, the Medes destroy the Babylon of that day. That destruction is called the work of the LORD of hosts, His vengeance, His day come, the day that He visits her... whoever the instruments, the judgment was God's.
One writer reads these chapters as looking past the fall of the ancient city. He also draws a present warning from them.
Many details in Jeremiah 50 and 51 let us see that there is more in the mind of the Spirit than the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus... the day is yet future, as Revelation 18 shows, when "every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon" (Jer. 51:29)... Babylonish principles are widespread today, and as we see the judgment of God on this system we ourselves will be intelligently kept clear of it... In this connection it is said, "THEIR REDEEMER IS STRONG" (Jer. 50:34).
- Sworn. God stakes Babylon's fall on Himself, since no greater name exists to swear by. The added "surely" meets our weakness, not His.
- Able. He can swear safely: He can do what He promises, and He already knows every consequence of it.
- Named. The oath comes from "the LORD of hosts," the King of nations, who used Babylon against others and now judges Babylon in turn.
- Swarmed. Locusts mean numbers beyond counting. Invading peoples cover the city and raise the shout of victory over her.
- Owned. The Medes carried it out, but the judgment was God's. The same sworn purpose still stands against Babylon's ways today — and the Redeemer of His people is strong.
He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
The prophecy against Babylon turns from arrows, shields and armies to the God who made the world. Why does a message of war stop to praise creation? What do power, wisdom and understanding have to do with the fall of an empire?
This verse opens a block of praise to God. One commentator points out that the same lines already stand in an earlier chapter of the same book.
Then comes a noble testimony to God in verses 15-19, set against idols and the people who worship them… This differs from Jeremiah 10:12-16 only in that Israel is left out of the last verse.
Three words describe how the world came to be: power, wisdom and understanding. Writing on the same lines in chapter 10, one commentator sees all three at work in making the world. He then points to what the next verse says about lightning.
He is the Creator. His power, wisdom and understanding worked in creating and establishing the earth and the heavens (v. 12)… Right here the Spirit records a scientific fact, made known over 2500 years ago: "He makes lightning for the rain" (v. 13). Scientists have only recently discovered this link between lightning and rain. Like many other discoveries, the Scriptures of Truth stated it in a few words ages ago.
Babylon was famous for its wise men. Next to the God who established the world by wisdom, human knowledge counts for nothing.
Idols are nothing, but the Lord God of Israel is all. He is the King of Nations, who rules over all. He is the true God, the living God, the everlasting King… He made the earth by His power. He established the world by wisdom. He stretched out the heavens by His understanding. But what is man? Brutish in his knowledge.
An idol has to be made. The Lord makes — and He carries the people He has made.
The house of Israel is reminded that the Lord carries the remnant of Israel. He made His people, carries them, and will deliver them from all their enemies… The Lord is the Maker, but an idol has to be made. Once made, instead of carrying others it has to be carried. Set in its place it cannot move, cannot answer a cry for help, and cannot save anyone from trouble.
Scripture never sets out to prove that God exists. It points to what He made and lets His works speak. What they say is both grand and tender.
There is no elaborate argument in proof of the existence of God… God reveals Himself. He makes Himself known by His works. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork."… "The gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens."… In the book of Job, God Himself appeals to His work in creation as an unanswerable argument for His infinite superiority. It gives the mind the clearest proof of His almighty power, and it touches the heart too, because He stoops so low to speak with us. The majesty and the love, the power and the tenderness, are all divine.
Babylon did more than conquer nations. She spread her idols among them, and that is why judgment falls.
Chapter 51 goes deeper still into Babylon's moral corruption, but the rescue of God's people is still in view… She had made the nations drunk so that they became mad. She had corrupted them with idolatry, the work of errors. So the Lord will punish Babylon, which "dwells upon many waters."
What God plans against Babylon, He also carries out. He stirs up her enemies to do it.
Babylon needed all its military equipment now. The Lord had roused the spirit of her northern foes against her, and had decided to destroy her… "Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon. Make the watch strong. Set up the watchmen. Prepare the ambushes, for the Lord has both devised and done what He spoke against the people of Babylon."
- Maker — He made the earth by His power. Everything else hangs on that: God makes; an idol has to be made.
- Wisdom — He established the world by wisdom. That leaves Babylon's famous wise men looking foolish; man is "brutish in his knowledge."
- Understanding — He stretched out the heavens by His understanding. The note about lightning and rain shows how far ahead of us that understanding runs.
- Witness — Scripture never argues that God exists. He makes Himself known by His works, and those works answer every idol.
- Verdict — the God who devised creation has "both devised and done" what He spoke against Babylon. Power that made a world can end an empire.
When he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the end of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
The prophecy has just announced Babylon's fall. Then it stops to describe the God who commands the clouds, the lightning and the wind. Why place a description of weather in the middle of a war sentence, and what does it prove about the One passing it?
This verse sits inside a short block of praise placed in the middle of the judgment on Babylon. One writer points out that the block repeats an earlier chapter of the same book almost word for word:
Then comes a noble testimony to God in verses 15-19, set against idols and those who worship them… It differs from Jeremiah 10:12-16 only in leaving Israel out of the last verse.
So the praise is not new. Here the old song stands over Babylon.
The verse traces a chain: a voice, waters massed in the sky, vapour drawn up from the ends of the earth. One writer notes how closely that matches what happens in the air:
How scientifically accurate these ancient Scriptures are! They speak of vapours gathered from the ends of the earth — a worldwide area. They speak of the way vapour rises, and of electrical discharge turning the vapour into a multitude of waters in the heavens. It is indeed most striking! People have often said that the Scriptures are not given to teach science. But when they do touch on science, they make no mistakes.
(The writer follows an older translation, which reads "a multitude of waters" where the ESV has "a tumult of waters.")
The phrase about lightning is not decoration. It states a link between the flash and the downpour, and that link took a long time for anyone to find:
That great scientist, Lord Kelvin, stirred huge interest when he announced his discovery: only an electrical discharge turns vapour into water, and so rain falls. He found that lightning produces the necessary electrical discharge, and lightning only.
Another writer notes how long that fact waited in the text:
Right here the Spirit records a scientific fact, made known over 2500 years ago: "He makes lightning for the rain." Like many other discoveries, it was stated in a few words in the Scriptures of Truth ages ago.
The wind here is not loose. God keeps it and brings it out. One writer sees the whole storm under a single hand, and a single will:
He is Lord above all gods — the gods His people have sadly kept comparing Him with. He is great beyond thought; they are so infinitely little. But Jehovah has done, in spite of all opposition, just what He pleased in heaven and on earth. Vapour, and rain; and lightning, and wind — all the equipment of storm are in His hand, and made to serve His kind purposes.
Another writer takes the thought of God's hidden supply further:
God is the Creator and Former of all things. He has hidden vast riches in the created universe, still undiscovered. He has hidden far greater riches still in the new creation, which true believers are part of in Christ through grace.
The verses on either side explain the point of the weather. Their gods were manufactured. This God manufactures the storm. One writer sets the two side by side:
With axe and hammer they make their gods! They cannot speak! They have to be carried! For they cannot go themselves! Silver and gold and blue and purple may cover them, but they are just blocks of wood! There is no breath in them!… The nations compete in strange and clever arts to form these empty things, but "The Portion of Jacob is not like them; for He is the Former of all things."
An idol cannot raise a cloud or move a mile. The One whose voice fills the sky with water needs no one to carry Him.
- Voice. The chapter interrupts Babylon's death sentence with praise. What God says with His mouth, the sky obeys — the same power stands behind the word spoken against the city.
- Vapour. He draws moisture up from the ends of the earth. Commentators note how exact that is: vapour gathered worldwide, rising, then turning to water — written down long before anyone could measure it.
- Voltage. Lightning is made for rain. Science found that link only in modern times. The prophet had already written it down.
- Vault. Wind is brought out of storehouses. Storm is stock He keeps and spends for kind purposes. His hidden riches reach further still, into the new creation believers share in Christ.
- Vanity. Set beside all this, gods that must be carried are nothing. The One who forms all things is His people's portion, and the manufactured gods of a doomed city could not hold it up.
Every man is become brutish, so as to have no knowledge; every founder is put to shame by the graven image, for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
In the middle of his battle orders against Babylon, Jeremiah sets the God who made the earth beside the gods that men make. Verse 17 gives the verdict on the second: the maker's own work shames him, because it has no life in it.
The lines about idols are not a detour. They follow a section of praise to God, and they repeat words the prophet had used earlier in his book.
Then comes a noble testimony to God, set against idols and those who worship them, in verses 15-19… It differs from Jeremiah 10:12-16 only in leaving out Israel in the last verse. It is clearly understood there, if we treat its insertion as a correction in some of the copies.
Older translations read "brutish" here. The word covers both what a man fails to know and how he then behaves.
The word is used for the ignorance of man (Psalm 73:22), and for a man acting like a creature without reason — that is, without conscience before God. The word is beir, translated "brutish" in Psalm 94:8; Jeremiah 10:8, 14, 21; Jeremiah 51:17.
The goldsmith needs no argument to condemn him. His own product does it: the thing he made can do nothing for anyone.
But if Israel witnesses to God, the idolaters become their own witness to the emptiness of their idols. Those who make the idols are "all of them vanity," and their images "profitable for nothing." They "neither see nor know," and their helplessness brings shame to their makers. The metalworker uses his own strength to shape a metal god, and the carpenter shapes a wooden idol in the form of a man.
The verse calls the images false and breathless. Skill and costly materials cannot supply life, and the same charge falls on the men who taught people to trust these gods.
The wise men and the workmen may work together to hold the nations by idolatry, but their gods are all the works of error, and so "they shall perish." The God of truth will triumph over this falsehood!… The signs of the heavens dismay the nations! With axe and hammer they make their gods! They cannot speak! They have to be carried, for they cannot walk! Silver and gold and blue and purple may cover them, but they are just blocks of wood! There is no breath in them! The "wise men" who teach their doctrines are foolish. So the prophet exposes the utter emptiness of idolatry.
The verse ties its two halves together: the man has no knowledge, and his image has no breath. The link runs from the idol back to the man.
What can these senseless gods do but degrade the men who bow before them into beings as senseless? And this is the just penalty on those who can forsake God to follow what are plainly their own inventions.
The words fall on a whole city, not just on single people. Babylon passed her idolatry on to the nations, and that is why judgment comes.
Chapter 51 goes deeper still into how corrupt Babylon had become, but the rescue of God's people is still in view… She had made the nations drunk, so that they went mad. She had corrupted them with idolatry, the work of errors. Therefore the Lord will punish Babylon, which "dwells upon many waters."
Two verses later the prophet turns from the idols to Israel's portion. That portion is a Person, and Babylon's images do not last.
The Lord is exalted in the overthrow of this cruel and corrupt system. He is the "Portion of Jacob" and the "Former of all things," and Israel is the rod of His inheritance… "I will do judgment on the graven images of Babylon," says the Lord. But He will bring His people to Zion, where God will set the true King according to Psalm 2.
- Setting — The verse sits inside a song of praise to God, verses 15-19, set against idols and those who worship them. It repeats almost word for word what Jeremiah had said in chapter 10.
- Stupid — The older word is "brutish": a man who is ignorant, and who acts like a creature without reason or conscience before God.
- Shamed — The maker's own work disproves him. The idol can do nothing, and that is the evidence against the hands that shaped it.
- Breathless — Silver, gold and fine cloth cannot supply the one thing missing. The image is false: it cannot speak or walk, and there is no breath in it. So it drags its worshippers down to its own level.
- Swept away — Babylon spread her idolatry to the nations, so judgment falls on her images along with her. What remains is the Portion of Jacob, the Maker of all things, who brings His people back to Zion.
They are vanity, a work of delusion in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Jeremiah's prophecy against Babylon stops mid battle-cry to praise the God who made the earth. Then it turns on the idols that city trusted, giving them a verdict and an end date — why should a song about the Creator doom man-made gods?
These words are not new in the book. One commentator notes where the passage sits and how closely it matches an earlier one:
Verses 15-19 then give a noble testimony to God, in contrast with idols and those who worship them. … This differs from Jeremiah 10:12-16 only in leaving Israel out of the last verse.
Jeremiah first spoke these words in chapter 10, to his own people. The same sentence now falls on the nation that carried them away.
ESV calls the idols "a work of delusion"; older versions read "the work of errors". One commentator, writing on the same words in chapter 10, names the hands behind that work:
The wise men with their teaching of empty things, and the workmen with their clever skill in silver and gold and wood, may work together with Chaldean scholarship to hold the nations by idolatry. But they are all works of error, and so "they shall perish". The God of truth will triumph over this falsehood! … The fact that these false gods will perish completely is recorded by the Spirit in verse 11 of that chapter, in the Chaldean language. This is striking: it is the only verse written that way in the whole book. The idolatrous Chaldeans were to take Israel captive, but in their own language God records the complete overthrow of their false gods.
The skill is real; the object is empty. Error runs through the whole system, so its collapse is only a matter of time.
Babylon did not keep her religion to herself. She exported it, and that is why the charge of the verse lands on her:
She had made the nations drunk, so that they went mad. She had corrupted them with idolatry, the work of errors. So the Lord will punish Babylon, which "dwells by many waters" (v. 13; see also Rev. 17:1). Her end will come (vv. 1-18).
So the "time of their punishment" is not vague. It is Babylon's own end, and her gods go down with her.
Babylon's overthrow did more than remove a tyrant. It settled a question about who the real God is:
The fall of Babylon was also a judgment pronounced upon idolatry. The portion of Jacob — the LORD — might discipline His people, but He was not like the empty gods of the nations. After disciplining them, He would bring out His righteousness, in contrast with the nations that oppressed them, and in the end He would use them as His weapons of war.
God punished Israel, but He never handed them over to lifeless gods. The idols perish; the God who disciplined His people then shows His righteousness against their oppressors.
One commentator sees the same system still at work, and makes it practical:
Babylonish principles are widespread today. As we see the judgment of God on this system, we understand it and keep clear of it. We cannot overrate how important this is for those who seek to exalt the Lord and to call on Him out of a pure heart. What is Babylonish is always ready to trap them, but as we learn the mind of God we are made strong against the advances of this lawless and superstitious system.
So the verse is not just ancient history. Anything that rests on error still has an end date, and knowing that keeps a person from investing in it.
- Worthless. The verse first prices the idols of Babylon: empty, whatever the silver and gold cost.
- Error. They come out of an organised falsehood — craftsmen, wise men and scholarship together — and "the God of truth will triumph over this falsehood."
- Repeated. The same sentence stands in Jeremiah 10. It now falls, almost word for word, on the empire that carried Israel away.
- Dated. "The time of their punishment" is a set day. Babylon's fall was itself "a judgment pronounced upon idolatry."
- Applied. Babylonish principles are still at work. Seeing God's verdict on them in advance keeps a believer clear of them.