Therefore behold, days are coming when I will punish the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
Jeremiah closes his long word against Babylon by naming God's target: not the city walls, but the carved gods inside them. The verse fixes a day, names what God will punish, and says her whole land will be put to shame.
Commentators read the whole downfall of Babylon as a verdict on her religion. The prophecy also carried its own timing, for readers who could see it.
God marked out a time. Only those with spiritual discernment would know when it came, because only they could apply the prophecy. Its elements were given plainly enough in these two chapters, above all in the attacks of the nations. When that time arrived, those who had ears to hear were to leave the city. More than that, the fall of Babylon was a judgment pronounced on idolatry. The portion of Jacob — the Lord — might discipline His people, but He was not like the worthless idols of the nations.
Babylon's gods had to be carried. When the city fell, animals hauled them away, and the gods went into captivity themselves.
Isaiah 46 draws a lively contrast between the fall of the helpless objects of Babylonian worship and God's gracious care over Israel. "Bel (their chief god, matching Zeus among the Greeks) bows down, Nebo (matching the Greek Hermes) bends. Their idols are loaded on the animals and on the cattle. Your loads are lifted up, a burden for the tired animal. They bend, they bow down together. They could not rescue the load, and they themselves have gone into captivity." So, chief god or lesser god, these false gods could do nothing for their worshippers, and could not rescue themselves.
The promised day was not vague. A named empire and a named man carried it out, and God's own people gained most from it.
"Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are put to shame, her images are broken in pieces. For out of the north a nation comes up against her, which will make her land desolate, and no one will live there." Its doom has come under the Medes, led by Cyrus the Persian. The consequence of deepest interest to God is that the fall of Babylon opens the door for His people to return from captivity. It pictures a final deliverance, when one greater than Cyrus will come and destroy the last holder of the last empire completely.
Her fall was not random violence. It answered her own record, and the same rule returns in Revelation.
In her fall Babylon only reaped what she had sown. "For it is the vengeance of the LORD; take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do to her." The same verdict falls on the Babylon of the end time... "Pay her back as she paid you, and repay her double for what she did; in the cup she mixed, mix a double portion for her" (Rev. 18:6).
The sentence on carved images is read as reaching past the ancient city to a later religious system that wants power now rather than later.
The false church, Babylon, seeks to reign now — "that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth" (Rev. 17:18). She will receive just repayment, and "I will punish the images of Babylon," says the Lord. But God will bring His people to Zion, where He will set the true King, as Psalm 2 says.
Commentators differ on how far to press this. Some keep the focus on Cyrus and the ancient city. Others see a system that returns at the end.
God's verdict on Babylon is more than information. Learning it guards you.
Babylon's principles are widespread today. As we see God's judgment on this system, we keep clear of it with understanding... Whatever belongs to Babylon is always ready to trap those who want to honour the Lord and call on Him from a pure heart. But as we learn the mind of God, we are strengthened against the advance of this lawless and superstitious system. We see that the Lord has purposed to judge it, to overthrow it completely, and also that He will save His people from its power. On this point it says, "Their Redeemer is strong."
- Idols first. God's sentence falls first on Babylon's idolatry. The gods go down, and the land follows them into shame.
- Helpless gods. The images could not rescue their worshippers. They could not even rescue themselves, and left the city as cargo.
- Appointed day. The promised day arrived under Cyrus and the Medes, and it opened the road home for God's captive people.
- Measured return. She got back what she had handed out, and the same rule returns against the Babylon of Revelation.
- Present guard. The verdict is already known. Those who learn God's mind about this system stay clear of it, and rest on a strong Redeemer.
And the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall shout aloud over Babylon; for out of the north the spoilers shall come against her, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah's long message against Babylon ends in a song. The singers are not the winning army but heaven and earth. Two questions follow: who are the "destroyers" from the north, and why does creation rejoice when a great city falls?
The destroyers have a name in history, and their victory opened a door.
Babylon of the Chaldeans is the greatest, the earliest, and most characteristic of the world's empires... Its doom comes under the Medes, led on by Cyrus the Persian. The result of deepest interest to God is this: the fall of Babylon opens the door for His people to return from captivity. It is the picture of a final deliverance. Then a greater than Cyrus will be there to bring the last holder of the last empire to total ruin. Compare Daniel chapters 2 and 7.
Vine sets Babylon's guilt beside God's promise to a people who felt forgotten.
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 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, and He will judge Babylon. He will render recompense... 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 by many waters."
The prophecy reaches past the ancient city. Vine finds the same rejoicing again in Revelation.
These two chapters, Jeremiah 50 and 51, do show us what happened to Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans. But the prophecy goes deeper than history. It shows us principles that grow into the harlot Babylon of the book of Revelation, and that bring down the righteous judgment of God. As here (Jer. 51:48), so in Revelation 18:20 and 19:1, those in heaven rejoice in the overthrow of this cruel and idolatrous system.
Revelation 18 names the singers. One event sounds two ways at once: grief below, gladness above. The last line quoted below reads in the ESV, "God has given judgment for you against her."
If there is mourning on earth, there is rejoicing in heaven. The place and those who live in it join in the song of triumph. There are three classes: saints, apostles, and prophets. The first term is a general one. It includes believers of both Old and New Testament times. The second refers to those of Christian times, and to the twelve apostles as well. The third is, of course, the prophets of old. All three classes mentioned are in heaven, and there they rejoice. "God has judged your judgment upon her." That is, saints, apostles, and prophets all passed a righteous judgment on Babylon, for all had suffered at her hands. God Himself now carries that judgment out.
Not everyone can join in that song.
When God carries out judgment, the saints of God will rejoice... Only those who are in glory can rightly enter into such solemn scenes. They are past all judgment, on the ground of the atoning work of Christ.
Babylon's ways did not die with the city. Knowing God's verdict has a present use.
The principles of Babylon largely apply today. As we see the judgment of God on this system, we understand it and keep clear of it. We cannot overstate how important this is for anyone who seeks to exalt the Lord and to call on Him out of a pure heart. The spirit of Babylon is always ready to trap such people. But as we learn the mind of God we stand firm against the advances of this lawless and superstitious system. 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 we read, "Their Redeemer is strong" (Jer. 50:34).
- Cause — Babylon made the nations drunk and corrupted them with idolatry. So God repays her for what she did.
- Deliverance — the destroyers from the north were the Medes under Cyrus. Their victory opened the door home for God's captive people.
- Song — Revelation 18 and 19 sing the same song. So the verse points past Cyrus to the fall of a far greater Babylon.
- Singers — saints, apostles, and prophets, all in heaven. They celebrate the sentence they once passed and God carried out, while the earth below mourns.
- Safety — only those past all judgment, on the ground of Christ's atoning work, can join that song. And those who see God's verdict on Babylon keep clear of Babylon.
As Babylon caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.
Jeremiah's long prophecy against Babylon comes to its centre here. Babylon cut down the people of Israel. Now Babylon herself is where the world's slain are answered for. Two questions follow. Why is one city held to account for blood shed across the whole earth? And does language this wide fit only the ancient city of Babylon?
Jeremiah opened by announcing that Babylon would carry Judah away. The book closes with the tables turned. One writer sets its two ends side by side:
This section about the nations gives us the prophet's words to the nations, with encouraging words about Israel mixed in. The language used shows that Israel's future deliverance is still in view. In fact it ends by foretelling God's judgment on Babylon and Israel's deliverance. Jeremiah began the other way round, foretelling God's judgment coming from Babylon and Israel's captivity. At the end, we are told, it is not Babylon but Israel that God will use! 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."
(That last line follows an older translation of the verse printed above.)
The verse measures Babylon's ruin by Babylon's crime. The same chapter names God after that way of working:
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 of his God, of the Lord of hosts." He will deal with them, and He will judge Babylon. He will repay. "The Lord God of recompenses will certainly repay." 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."
"The slain of all the earth" reaches wider than the fall of one ancient city. One writer states the difficulty plainly:
But here a difficulty presents itself at once. The doom of Babylon is announced in terms that take in the whole earth. The empire of Babylon passed away long ago, and its capital city with it. Even so, no sound principle of interpretation can treat those terms as fulfilled.
That wider reach is why readers link these chapters with the book of Revelation:
These two chapters certainly show us what happened to Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans. But the prophecy goes deeper than history. It shows us principles that grow into the harlot Babylon of the book of Revelation, and that bring down the righteous judgment of God.
How can the deaths of "all the earth" be charged to one city? One writer answers that God's dealings with the world differ from His judgment of each person:
This is what will bring out God's indignant judgment on the last phase of Babylon. The guilt of all the blood of holy ones shed on the earth will be charged to her, and she will be judged for it. Of course, this does not change the fact that in the judgment of the dead each person is judged for his own sin… The judgment of the dead is strictly individual; judgments in this world are not… But under His principle of government the guilt is not only personal. Where the testimony of God is despised, guilt builds up from age to age, in proportion to that testimony and to the wickedness men indulge despite it. All Israel too shall be saved as a people, for the glory of the Lord on the earth. But there is neither restoration nor mercy for Babylon.
One writer traces the blood found in Babylon back to what she had become:
But another secret was found there by divine light: the blood of prophets and saints, and of all the slain on the earth. She had corrupted the earth with her sorceries. That was mysterious, but it was hardly a secret. Babylon, however, had inherited the sad place of fallen Jerusalem. All the blood of saints and prophets was found in her. Religion without God is the cruellest and most relentless enemy of all testimony to God.
- Crime — Babylon made the slain of Israel fall; that act is the stated ground of her own ruin.
- Measure — God repays in kind. This chapter names Him the God of recompenses, who will certainly repay.
- Reach — the wording takes in the whole earth. One writer holds that terms this wide were never fulfilled in the old Babylon.
- Charge — where God's testimony is despised, guilt piles up across the ages. So one city answers for blood it never shed itself.
- Result — Israel, once the captive, ends as the power God uses. For Babylon there is no restoration and no mercy.
Ye that have escaped the sword, go, stand not still remember Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
Jeremiah 51 spells out Babylon's doom, and in the middle of it God turns aside to address His own people — survivors still living in the land of their captors. He tells them to move, and to keep the LORD and His city alive in their hearts.
Two things run side by side in this chapter: Babylon's ruin, and God's care for a scattered people.
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 that the LORD of hosts, their God, has not forsaken Israel or Judah. He will deal with them and He will judge Babylon. She had made the nations drunk until they went mad, and had corrupted them with idolatry. So the Lord will punish her, and her end will come.
The order in verse 6 is sharper still, and it reverses what the same prophet had told the people years before.
Even more urgent is the call in Jeremiah 51:6 to flee from the middle of Babylon, save your life, and not be cut off because of her guilt, "for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance." The same Jeremiah who in the past had advised the people to submit themselves to Babylon's yoke, later urged them to flee from her.
The same call repeats, and one writer traces it from Jeremiah through to Revelation.
It is instructive to see that 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" (Revelation 18:4). "Remove out of the midst of Babylon" (Jeremiah 50:8); "Flee out of the midst of Babylon … My People, go out of the midst of her" (Jeremiah 51:6, 45). … He will pardon them graciously and bless them, when they turn again to Him.
Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem from Babylon. He had God's word for it — a promise made hundreds of years before he was born.
Was there any divine reason for Daniel's praying toward Jerusalem? Certainly there was! … Jerusalem was God's centre. It was, it is, and ever shall be. True, it was in ruins — the temple was in ruins; but God's word was not in ruins, and here is faith's simple but solid warrant. Hundreds of years before Daniel's time, King Solomon said this at the dedication of the temple: "if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity … then hear their prayer from heaven, from the place where you dwell."
A ruined city seems a strange thing to hold in mind. Yet one thing could happen there and nowhere else.
In Jerusalem alone could the blood of atonement — and "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" — be sprinkled on the golden mercy seat, so that a holy God might dwell among the praises of His people. It was only a waste spot now; yet their hearts stayed attached to it and would not let go.
Music put that memory to the test.
How can the godly sing the LORD's song in a strange land? … To join with the world in its songs and its mirth would be to forget Jerusalem and its sorrows. The godly man would rather forget his skill in playing the harp than forget Jerusalem.
Years later the road home opened, and hearts showed themselves at once.
Not all were ready to go back; only a small remnant was willing. The great majority preferred to remain in Babylon. There was nothing to attract them to Jerusalem — the city of ruins, with the once magnificent temple in ruins. Those who returned loved Jerusalem, the place the LORD had chosen.
Commentators see these chapters reaching past the ancient city to a system at work today.
Babylon's principles are at work on a wide scale today. As we see God's judgment 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. In this connection it is said, "THEIR REDEEMER IS STRONG."
- Spared — the word comes to those who came through the sword alive. Escape was not the end of the story. It came with orders.
- Move — go, and do not stand still. The prophet who once said submit now says flee, because the time of the LORD's vengeance had come.
- Remember — distance did not cut them off. God had promised to hear prayer from the land of captivity, and Daniel prayed on that promise.
- Prefer — Jerusalem stayed in mind as God's chosen centre and the one place of atonement. Forgetting it meant singing Babylon's songs instead.
- Return — when the road home opened, only those who had kept the city in their hearts took it. The rest stayed where life was easy, and that choice still stands wherever Babylon's principles are at work.
-- We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach; confusion hath covered our face for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah's house.
These words come from exiles. They have heard that outsiders walked into the holy places of the LORD's house, and their shame raises three questions: why God allowed it, how His people should answer it, and whether He will act.
The people expected the temple to keep them safe.
The temple would not be their strong fortress against the judgments of the king of Babylon. It would be the very point where all these judgments met. If he destroyed the city of Jerusalem as a whole, the sanctuary would suffer most of all. The house of God was the very thing the invader wanted. The nations felt an instinctive hostility toward this temple where the LORD had placed His name. They knew well what the LORD had done in the past when He overthrew the nations. The question was whether the LORD would now let the invaders plunder His temple and wipe His name, as it were, off the earth.
God had placed the sanctuary in Judah's care.
Her adversary had triumphed over her, even defiling her sanctuary. God had given its care to Judah, with the command that no uncircumcised person should enter the congregation of the Lord. Judah failed to guard her precious things, so God gave them up to the unclean of the nations. It is always so. If God's people do not value what He entrusts to them, He will teach them its worth by taking it away. He will even make it the sport of their enemies.
The exiles do not blame Babylon for their covered faces. They own the disgrace themselves.
There is no place for us but Bochim, the place of weeping. We have all failed badly — we must all be "weepers" before the Lord. "To us belongs shame and confusion of face." Had we been faithful — had we walked with the Lord like children weaned from their mother — none of this sorrow would have come upon us. We would have brought none of this dishonour on the Lord.
Confession is not the whole of it. Daniel added one more line.
Let us not forget to add, as Daniel did, "But to You, O Lord, belongs mercy, although we have sinned." Surely the multitude of His tender mercies is still greater than the multitude of our sins. His love has known how to cover them in grace.
God allowed the outrage. He did not excuse the one who did it.
Then the anger of God against the evils of His people condemned them to be carried away. The temple was destroyed and His inheritance polluted. God permitted it. The Babylonian king did it with a heavy hand. On Babylon the heavy hand of God's judgment will come, in a day that carries out "the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance of His temple" (Jer. 50:28).
Babylon's fall does something for the people who carried the shame.
"We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed... The LORD has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God." Babylon's fall is the justification of Judah. Their heart then turns to Zion, so that they might publish there the work of the LORD their God.
Writers read the picture of outsiders inside God's holy places as a mirror for the present.
Let us apply these words to ourselves. Is this not the crime of the Christian world in relation to the worship of our God? Do not the uncircumcised — those who do not believe — share in serving in the holy things? How humiliating for the people of God to mix the holy with the unholy! They let the uncircumcised and the Canaanite into the house of God. What a dishonour to Him of whom it is said, "Holiness befits Your house, O LORD."
- Cause — The sanctuary suffered most because God's people failed to guard what He entrusted to them. He teaches the worth of a thing by taking it away.
- Confession — The exiles do not blame Babylon. They say the shame belongs to us — and then, like Daniel, add that mercy belongs to the Lord.
- Claim — God permitted the temple's defilement, but He never excused it. Babylon's fall is the vengeance of His temple.
- Comfort — Babylon's fall justifies the shamed people. Their hearts turn back to Zion to declare God's work.
- Call — The same grief fits today wherever the holy and the unholy mix in God's house. Holiness still befits His house.
-- Therefore behold, days come, saith Jehovah, that I will punish her graven images; and throughout her land the wounded shall groan.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Though Babylon should mount up to the heavens, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith Jehovah.
This verse grants Babylon every advantage she could dream of — let her climb to heaven and fortify that height. God does not argue with her strength; He simply says where her destroyers will come from.
The picture of a city climbing up to the sky is not new. One writer traces it back to how Babylon began:
The ancient city of Babylon started when men began to unite. Their idea was to make themselves great and gain influence by building a city and a tower "with its top in the heavens" (Genesis 11:4). Ancient Babylon reached the height of its splendour under the famous Nebuchadnezzar. He held the widest influence of all, and self-exaltation could go no higher. Soon after this, the city lost its place at the top and fell into ruin.
The name itself carries the idea. Babel means confusion, and another writer explains what men gather there to do:
It is there men are united to exalt themselves and make themselves a name and a reputation in the world.
Babylon's defences were real, and they were huge. One writer describes them, and the confidence they produced:
Babylon stood on a broad plain, and was a perfect square. Its walls ran fifteen miles in each direction. They were 300 feet high and 75 feet broad, with a hundred brass gates set in them, framed in brass… Defended like this, Babylon believed no one could ever take her… The king and the people thought themselves safe from every power, in heaven or on earth. But they were wrong, for they had forgotten God.
The verse does not say a stronger army happened to arrive. It names the source. One writer points to what set the armies of the north moving:
Babylon needed all its military equipment now. The LORD had roused the spirit of her enemies in the north against her, and had decided 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 same chapter puts it in a picture. God speaks of Babylon as a mountain, and says what He will do with it:
"Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares the LORD, which destroys the whole earth. I will stretch out My hand against you, and roll you down from the crags, and make you a burnt mountain."
The principle reaches past one city. Another writer states how God treats pride:
God gives grace to the humble while He resists the proud… The proud get no grace from God but rather resistance. No wonder they go down.
Commentators are agreed that these chapters look past the Persian conquest. One writer applies the verse's own words to what he saw rising around him:
Anyone capable of seeing recognizes the rise of what is Babylonish on all hands; but "though Babylon should mount up to heaven, she shall be brought down."
That is why the chapter is more than history. It tells the reader where to stand, and who holds the outcome:
The principles of Babylon are still widely at work today. As we see God's judgment on this system, we ourselves are kept clear of it with understanding… We see that the Lord has purposed to judge it, to overthrow it completely, and also that He will save His people from its power. Of His people it is said, "Their Redeemer is strong" (Jeremiah 50:34).
- Height. Babylon began with a tower aimed at heaven, and peaked under Nebuchadnezzar. Climbing was the city's founding idea, not a late fault.
- Fortress. Walls fifteen miles long and 300 feet high made her feel safe from every power in heaven or on earth. That defence left out God.
- Source. The destroyers come from God Himself. He stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, and no wall could stand between Babylon and His sentence.
- Reversal. God calls Babylon a destroying mountain. He will roll her down from the crags and leave her burnt.
- Refuge. Babylon's principles are still at work today. Safety is not in walls but in the Redeemer who is strong.
The sound of a cry [cometh] from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans;
A cry goes up out of Babylon, and the noise carries all the way from the land of the Chaldeans. Commentators hear in that shout a real empire falling. They also hear the pattern of a later fall that Scripture returns to.
The cry has a cause behind it. It belongs to a verdict God passes in this part of the chapter.
The Lord again takes up the word of judgment for her idols in verses 47-58.
The chapter keeps insisting that God has not abandoned His people. What happens to Babylon is a settling of accounts.
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 He is showing very little care for them. But He assures them, "For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD of hosts." He will deal with them. He will judge Babylon and render recompense. "The LORD is a God of recompense; He will surely repay" (v. 56). 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 Revelation 17:1).
"The land of the Chaldeans" was not a backwater. It was home to an advanced civilisation. But its learning could not hold the cry back.
Anyone who can see recognises the rise of what is Babylonish on every side. But "though Babylon should mount up to heaven," she shall be brought down. Long ago, the Chaldean scholar, religious man, spiritualist, astrologer and idolater used his wisdom to build a remarkable system. It will soon reappear in a more marvellous way than ever, as Revelation 17 and 18 show us.
Babylon had a loud voice of her own. Here the commentary sets it against another voice.
God destroys the great voice of discord out of Babylon (v. 55); the great voice of harmony sounds in heavenly gladness above (Revelation 19:1). Supremacy passes from Babylon. The true King is found in Zion, in Jerusalem; only from there can the earth be ruled rightly. The King is of David's royal line, as Matthew 1 shows, not Nebuchadnezzar's.
The cry is not a setback a city recovers from. Writers compare the closing scene of this chapter with a matching scene in Revelation 18.
Jeremiah 51:60-64 describes a similar dramatic action pointing to the overthrow of Babylon of old. There, however, Seraiah was the actor; in Revelation 18 it is an angel of might. Both cities, the literal and the symbolic, were to be destroyed completely and suddenly by violence. Study and compare the two chapters, Jeremiah 51 and Revelation 18. How complete the ruin! Joyless, dark and silent, Babylon stands out as a monument of the utmost vengeance of God. Her destruction cannot be undone.
The prophecy came true in history. But its detail reaches past Cyrus, and that is what makes it useful now.
Many details in Jeremiah 50 and 51 show us there is more in the mind of the Spirit here. It is more than the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus, and more than the partial restoration of Israel afterwards. As we understand this, we can grasp what these chapters have to teach us now. Babylonish principles largely apply today. As we see the judgment of God on this system, we ourselves are kept clear of it with understanding. What is Babylonish 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 strengthened against the inroads of this lawless and superstitious system. We see that the Lord has purposed to judge it, to overthrow it altogether, and that He will save His people from its power. In this connection it is said, "Their Redeemer is strong" (Jeremiah 50:34).
- Cause. The cry is not an accident of war. God is repaying a system that corrupted the nations with idolatry. He is the God of recompense.
- Target. The shout rises against Babylon's idols — that is what verses 47-58 are aimed at.
- Reach. Height is no defence. Though she climbs to heaven, Chaldean learning and religion cannot stop her fall.
- Result. God silences her loud voice. Heaven answers with a song, and rule passes to the true King of David's line, not Nebuchadnezzar's.
- Use. Babylonish principles still work today. Reading this judgment keeps believers clear of the system God has already sentenced — and their Redeemer is strong.
for Jehovah spoileth Babylon, and he will destroy out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like great waters, the noise of their voice resoundeth.
Jeremiah 51:55 comes near the end of a long judgment on Babylon, the empire that had carried God's people away as captives. The verse names who is behind the ruin. The LORD Himself is silencing the city. The roar left behind is not hers — it is the roar of the waves that swallow her.
Babylon's fall is not an accident of history. It is God's answer to what she has done. His people may feel forgotten, but they are not.
Chapter 51 goes deeper still into the moral degradation of Babylon, but the deliverance of God's people is still in view. People may think He is showing them very little care. But He assures them, "Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD of hosts." He will deal with them, and He will judge Babylon. He will repay. "The LORD is a God of recompense; He will surely repay" (v. 56). She had made the nations drunk until they went mad. She had corrupted them with idolatry, the work of delusion. So the LORD will punish Babylon, which "dwells by many waters."
The verse says God is stilling "her mighty voice." One writer calls that voice discord, and sets another voice beside it — the one heard in heaven.
God destroys the great voice of discord out of Babylon (v. 55). Above, in heavenly gladness, the great voice of harmony sounds (Rev. 19:1). Babylon loses her supremacy. The true King is in Zion, in Jerusalem, and only from there can the earth be ruled rightly.
Babylon sat by many waters. Now the waters roar over her, and one writer explains what that flood is made of.
In Isaiah 21 we return to the doom of Babylon. It is to be "the desert of the sea." In Jeremiah's prophecy against the city he says, "The sea is come up upon Babylon" (Jer. 51:42), which helps to explain the expression. Babylon would be swamped by the sea of nations and become a desert.
One writer sets this chapter beside Revelation 18, where another Babylon falls. The end is the same: no sound left at all.
Study and compare the two chapters, Jeremiah 51 and Revelation 18. Verses 22 and 23 then give a vivid and moving account of her complete desolation. How complete the ruin! Joyless, dark, and silent, Babylon stands as a monument to the full vengeance of God… At last she had filled her cup of wickedness to the brim. Then God rises in His fierce anger. His fury burns, and Babylon falls, never to rise again.
One writer draws a plain practical use from all this. Know what God has condemned, and stay clear of it.
Babylonish principles are still widely at work today. Seeing God's judgment on this system keeps us clear of it, with understanding. This matters more than we can say for anyone who seeks to exalt the Lord and to call on Him out of a pure heart. Whatever is Babylonish is always ready to trap such people. But as we learn the mind of God, we stand firm against the advances of this lawless and superstitious system. We see that the Lord has purposed to judge it and to overthrow it completely. We also see that He will save His people from its power. On this point Scripture says, "Their Redeemer is strong" (Jer. 50:34).
- Voice — cause. Babylon made the nations drunk and corrupted them. God answers as the God of recompense, who will surely repay.
- Voice — silenced. Her great voice is the voice of discord. God destroys it out of her, and her supremacy goes with it.
- Voice — replaced. Where Babylon falls silent, a great voice of harmony sounds in heaven, and rule passes to the true King in Zion.
- Voice — drowned. The roaring waves picture the sea of nations that swamps her, leaving a desert where the city stood.
- Voice — warning. Babylonish principles still work today. Knowing God's verdict on this system keeps His people clear of it, and their Redeemer is strong.
For the spoiler is come against her, against Babylon, and her mighty men are taken; their bows are broken in pieces; for Jehovah, the God of recompences, will certainly requite.
Jeremiah 51 describes armies and walls, then names the real cause of Babylon's collapse: the LORD is "a God of recompense." That turns a military report into a courtroom verdict, and raises the question every crushed people asks: does God ever settle accounts?
The destroyer who arrives at Babylon's gates is not an accident of history. One writer traces the invasion back to a decision God had already made.
Babylon needed all her military equipment now. That was because the Lord had stirred up the spirit of her northern enemies against her, and had determined to destroy her.
The same chapter says plainly why. This judgment is God's answer for what Babylon did to His temple.
Zion is to know the holy character of this judgment, for it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple (Jer. 50:28; 51:11).
The word "surely" answers a fear God's people had. They thought He had forgotten them.
People may think that 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, and He will judge Babylon. He will render recompense. "The Lord God of recompenses will certainly repay" (v. 56).
The title in this verse is not a one-off. It belongs with a whole list of names that show what God is always like.
He is jealous, merciful, gracious, forgiving, faithful, just, holy, mighty, great and terrible. He is the God of knowledge (1 Sam. 2:3), the God of recompenses, the living God, the eternal God. In short, He is the One who governs men in the strength of holiness (Jer. 32:18, 51:56).
Babylon's warriors fall and their bows break. So what really decides the fate of nations?
It is not man that governs in any case, but God. God is sovereign, and so He acts according to His own will. It is not a question of which side has the most strength or the most wisdom. Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome did not win the empire of the world because they were stronger.
Babylon had been God's own instrument to punish Judah. That role never licensed her cruelty.
Then God's anger at the evils of His people condemned them to be carried away. The destruction of the temple left His inheritance polluted. God permitted it, and the Babylonian king did it with a heavy hand. The heavy hand of God's judgment will come upon Babylon in turn, on the day that carries out "the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of His temple" (Jer. 50:28).
Writing on Isaiah's prophecy against Babylon, one commentator adds what her self-confidence led to.
God's anger at His guilty people was no excuse for Babylon's merciless behaviour. She was sure her resources would hold, and that confidence came just before her ruin.
Babylon's fall is not a one-off event in ancient history. Writing on another prophecy against Babylon, one commentator states the rule.
Divine retribution is coming for them. The spoiler is going to be spoiled. You can read this retribution all through history, and it still goes on. What is true of people is true of nations: "Whatever one sows, that will he also reap."
Vine also names what Babylon had done to the nations, and points the prophecy forward.
She had made the nations drunk so that they went mad, and she had corrupted them with idolatry, the work of errors. So the Lord will punish Babylon, which "dwells upon many waters" (v. 13; see also Rev. 17:1). Her end will come.
- Crime. Babylon crushed God's people and His temple with a heavy hand. Being God's instrument was no cover for cruelty.
- Command. God stirred up her enemies and determined her end. The invasion was a summons, not an accident.
- Collapse. Her warriors fall and their bows break. World power never rests on strength or wisdom, but on God's will.
- Character. "A God of recompense" is a name, not a mood. The same God who is merciful, faithful and holy governs men in the strength of holiness.
- Certainty. "He will surely repay" answers the captive's fear of being forgotten. The destroyer is destroyed, and what a nation sows it reaps.
And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her governors, and her rulers, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts.
God promises to make Babylon's whole ruling class drunk: princes, governors, wise men, soldiers. Then He puts them to sleep for good. The verse ends with a name. That name settles who truly rules empires, and why Babylon would never rise again.
Jeremiah sets God's kingship above every throne he writes about. The same name closes the sentence on Egypt and on Babylon.
Jeremiah shows us that the Lord is the true Ruler. Above all earthly kings, He is "the everlasting King" and "the King of the nations" (Jer. 10:7-10). "Who would not fear You?" asks the prophet. "At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation." In chapter 46 God punishes Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, according to the word of "the King whose name is the LORD of hosts" (v. 18). He carries this out through the king of Babylon, whom He also uses to carry Israel into captivity. Yet Babylon's punishment must follow too, and Israel must go free again, "declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts" (Jer. 51:57). This overturning of kings and nations and empires has gone on, and will go on. It ends when He comes and establishes justice and equity in the earth.
The name also looks ahead. One writer reads it as telling us who will hold the throne once Babylon's rule ends.
Supremacy passes from Babylon. The true King is found in Zion, in Jerusalem, and only from there can the earth be ruled rightly. The King is of David's royal line, as Matthew 1 shows, not Nebuchadnezzar's. He must also be divine—the Son of God. It is probably with this in view that Jeremiah 51:57 tells us that the One who decrees the destruction of the Babylonish princes and rulers is "THE KING, WHOSE NAME IS THE LORD OF HOSTS."
The drunkenness here was not only a picture. One writer ties it to the night the city fell.
Its downfall was unexpected. For 24 years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon remained 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, and the whole city would give itself to drink and wild living. They turned the river out of its bed, so that it was shallow enough for the troops to walk along. They found the gates open, and took the city.
Another writer names that night:
Babylon did fall suddenly in the night of Belshazzar's feast. Compare Jeremiah 51:39-41.
Is this sleep with no waking the same as the eternal judgment of the New Testament? One writer answers by keeping the two apart.
The "perpetual sleep" runs through man's day, which is what the Old Testament deals with. The Babylon of the Chaldeans was never to wake. And so it has been. Revelation 14:10-11 goes deeper. It is God's judgment on individual worshippers of His enemy, and there "for ever" carries the unlimited force of the New Testament. Christ has brought to light not only life and immortality, but also the second death and everlasting judgment. "Seventy years" in no way measure Babylon's doom, but the chastening of the land and people of Judea.
Jeremiah's chapters on the nations promise several of them a future. Babylon is the one exception.
These nations were all to fall under the power of Nebuchadnezzar. But some of them are to be restored in a coming day. Among them will be Elam, Egypt, Moab and Ammon. Not Philistia, not Damascus, not Hazor, and above all not Babylon.
The last book of the Bible describes another Babylon. One writer sets the two falls side by side.
Both cities, the literal one and the symbolic one, were to be destroyed by violence, completely and suddenly. Study Jeremiah 51 and Revelation 18 with care, and compare them... Joyless, dark, and silent, Babylon stands out as a monument of the utmost vengeance of God... Her destruction cannot be undone.
- The King decrees. "The King, whose name is the LORD of hosts" signs the sentence on Babylon's princes and rulers. He stands above every earthly throne.
- The King uses kings. He punished Egypt through Babylon's king, then punished Babylon. The overturning of empires goes on until He brings justice to the earth.
- The King strikes at a feast. The drunkenness was literal: a festival night, a diverted river, open gates, and a city taken by surprise.
- The King's sleep has no morning. "Perpetual sleep" covers man's day. The old Babylon never woke again. The New Testament shows a deeper judgment, with no limit.
- The King keeps His throne. Jeremiah promises restoration to other nations. Babylon alone gets none. Supremacy passes from her to the true King in Zion, of David's line and divine.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly laid bare, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; so that the peoples will have laboured in vain, and the nations for the fire and they shall be weary.
Jeremiah's long message against Babylon ends with the city's own defences destroyed — the thick walls levelled, the high gates burned. The verse then turns to everyone who built them, and says all their hard work was only fuel for the fire.
The walls and gates here are not poetry. Writers point out that Scripture and the historians describe the same city:
On several points Scripture supports what the historians say. It mentions the city's broad walls in Jeremiah 51:12, 58, and its gates of bronze and bars of iron in Isaiah 45:2. Nebuchadnezzar himself boasted of the "great Babylon" which he had built by the might of his power and for the honour of his majesty (Daniel 4:30).
Those walls were the whole basis of the city's confidence:
Babylon stood on a broad plain, and formed a perfect square. Its walls ran fifteen miles in each direction. They were 300 feet high and 75 feet broad, pierced by a hundred bronze gates with posts of bronze… Defended like this, Babylon thought herself unconquerable. The city gathered all the pleasure, the godlessness, and the luxury that man could want. The king and the people thought themselves safe from every power in heaven or on earth. But they were mistaken, for they had forgotten God.
The fire was no accident. God stirred up the armies that took the city, and He repaid Babylon for what she had done in Zion:
Babylon needed all her weapons now. Jehovah had stirred up the spirit of her enemies from the north, and had decided to destroy her: "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."… "You were my battle axe, weapons of war: with you I have broken nations in pieces… And I have repaid Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil which 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: and I will stretch out my hand against you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain."
The last line of the verse turns from the city to the nations who wore themselves out building it. One writer reads it as a picture of the world today:
And this is just the poor mad world's occupation and condition today — they are labouring in vain, their dreams of universal, permanent peace and disarmament, their enjoyment of a golden age without Christ and conversion, are only dreams, destined never to be realized. Their statesmen, their reformers, their social workers, their builders, all are only labouring for the fire, and weariness, utter weariness, and disappointment is their predicted portion.
The same words about wasted toil and fire appear in Habakkuk, and there a promise follows them:
Habakkuk 2:12-14 is still more explicit. After pronouncing woe on violence and wrongdoing, the prophet asks whether it is not from Jehovah that the peoples labour for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity: "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea." What the peoples toil at is only for the fire to consume. Their weariness is for vanity (compare Jeremiah 51:58). The judgements of the Lord will show this, but they will do more and better.
The ruin was final. One writer traces what kept Babylon down ever since:
Babylon was to sink, and not rise again. Nor did she ever, though many tried. First military power, and later God stepping in, always stopped her rising; for the judgment of God's word was upon her.
That leaves one question for the reader. Is there any work the fire does not touch? One writer ends with the answer:
May the Lord in His grace make us all like Seraiah, the man of rest, happy in the knowledge of a portion above, with Christ. Satisfied with this, may we labour, not for the fire nor yet in vain. For we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58).
- Built. Babylon's broad walls and bronze gates were real and measurable. They made the city sure that no power in heaven or on earth could touch her.
- Burned. Babylon was God's battle axe against the nations. When her own turn came, God made the mountain that destroyed others a burnt mountain.
- Wasted. The nations who toiled on her lost more than a city. They had spent themselves for the fire, and weariness was their wage.
- Warned. The same verdict stands over today's building. Peace plans, reform, and progress without Christ are dreams that will never come true.
- Worthwhile. Only one work escapes the fire. Labour in the Lord is never in vain.