and say, Jehovah, thou hast spoken concerning this place, that thou wilt cut it off, so that none shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
Jeremiah wrote Babylon's doom in a book and gave it to Seraiah, an official on his way to Babylon. Verse 62 is what Seraiah was to say out loud after reading that book — and he says it to God, not to the Babylonians.
The chapter does not end with more words. It ends with something Seraiah had to do.
The closing verses (59–64) form a kind of seal on the charge Jeremiah laid on Seraiah, who, after coming to Babylon, was to read this book and cast it with a stone attached into the Euphrates as a token of the sure and total fall of Babylon.
Seraiah walked into the court of the world's mightiest king as an honoured guest. One writer shows what kept his head clear there.
He was going, properly accredited, to the brilliant court of the mightiest monarch on earth. As a prince he would receive all the privileges due to his rank. He was used to the plain, almost country-like simplicity of his own master's court, so he was in great danger: great Babylon's pomp and magnificence could easily have captivated him... The surest safeguard was to obey the command God gave him through the prophet. Then Babylon could not bewitch him or sway him in the least. He was to reach the splendid capital, see its dazzling magnificence, and read its doom in the book he carried. Then he was to say what he knew: that this city would certainly be destroyed, and soon.
The words "desolate forever" point first to the city standing at that moment. One writer holds to that, without shutting the door on more.
About Babylon, one thing is plain, whatever the judgment may be about later events. The testimony given then, about the Babylon of that day, was a testimony meant to hold forever. Zedekiah and Seraiah, and the testimony to be read in Babylon at that time, clearly apply to the Babylon that existed then. And Babylon was to be desolate forever. I reject no further instruction here.
The sentence did not fall all at once. Its effect can still be measured on the ground.
This ruin did not come all at once, but ancient Babylon slowly became all of that. The ruins of this once powerful city lie north of Hilla... Excavation uncovered many of them, showing that the city covered twelve square miles. It also uncovered great streets and canals, and the ruins of the Marduk temple. These ruins can never be rebuilt.
Commentators differ over how far the prophecy reaches. Gaebelein keeps to ruins that can never be rebuilt. Vine sees the scene reaching beyond the old city, since Revelation repeats the act with a stone and a doomed city.
This signifies more than the overthrow of Babylon in the past: the Babylon which is soon to rise in worldly religious splendour is also in view... "A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, So will that great city Babylon be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more at all" (Rev. 18:21).
God's judgment and His discipline are not the same thing.
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. His own people He chastened with a view to restoring them... Babylon, on the other hand, would receive a final judgment.
The same writer turns from Seraiah to the reader, and the link between them is a book held in the hand.
We, like Seraiah, have a Book placed in our hands; and this Book, God's Word written, tells us plainly and again and again the doom of this great world-Babylon... For faith, this breaks the spell of its charm. Because he knows for certain that it will be destroyed, the Christian does not hold love for it in his heart. Like Seraiah he is sent into it with a message; he is commissioned to declare its doom. His business here is to be a witness against it. But he is more than Seraiah could be: he is an ambassador for Christ, sent to offer pardon to Babylon's people, if they repent toward God and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
after-reason: restores author's closing point, cuts passives
- Sent. Seraiah carried Babylon's written doom into Babylon. The reading and the sinking stone sealed what God had said.
- Said. The verse is speech turned back to God — a man agreeing out loud with the sentence he has just read.
- Settled. "Desolate forever" was spoken to the Babylon of that day, and its ruins were never rebuilt. Commentators differ on whether a further Babylon is also in view.
- Severe. God disciplined His own people to restore them. Babylon He judged, and it would never rise again.
- Steadying. The reader also holds a book that names this world's end. Knowing the end breaks its hold on the heart, and sends him out with pardon to offer.
And it shall be, when thou hast ended reading this book, [that] thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates;
Jeremiah has just written every word of judgment against Babylon into a book. He now sends Seraiah to read it aloud inside the city, tie a stone to it, and sink it in the Euphrates — a strange errand that raises one question: what do the stone and the river mean?
The chapter does not end with words. It ends with an errand.
The closing verses (59–64) form a kind of seal on the charge Jeremiah laid on Seraiah. After coming to Babylon, he was to read this book, then attach a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates. This was a sign of the sure and total fall of Babylon.
Where Seraiah threw the book matters as much as the throwing.
Jeremiah wrote the prophecy against Babylon in a book and gave it to Seraiah. Seraiah was to read it when he arrived at Babylon, then tie a stone to the book, cast it into the Euphrates, and say, "Thus shall Babylon sink." So the book went into the river the Babylonians trusted for safety — the very river that was the channel of their destruction.
The names carry meaning too — even the name of the man who threw the scroll:
Babylon means confusion, and, thank God, that confusion will come to an end, in politics and in religion alike. The Euphrates means rushing. That probably pictures Babylon growing up beside the fast-running tide of fallen man's will and energy. It is also striking that Seraiah means "The Lord has prevailed"!
A stone tied to a scroll does one thing: it goes down and stays down. One writer sets the act beside the millstone thrown into the sea in Revelation 18.
Jeremiah "wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon." He directed Seraiah, who went with Zedekiah to Babylon in the fourth year of that king's reign, to read the book in the very presence of Babylon's prosperity and magnificence. Seraiah was then to bind a stone to it and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates. The meaning of the action is the same in both cases; it signified violent, complete, final, and irreversible destruction.
God deals with two parties in this chapter, and not in the same way.
The judgment on Babylon was going to be final. It would "sink, to rise no more." God's dealings with Babylon are very different from His dealings with His own people. He chastened His own people in order to restore them. More exactly, He aimed at that part of the people with whom the discipline would work — the remnant. Babylon, on the other hand, would receive a final judgment.
The picture returns at the end of the Bible, with a different actor.
Jeremiah 51:60–64 describes a similar dramatic action pointing to the overthrow of Babylon of old. There, however, Seraiah was the actor; here it is a mighty angel. Violence was to destroy both cities, the literal one and the symbolic one, completely and all at once. Study and compare the two chapters, Jeremiah 51 and Revelation 18.
Commentators differ on how far the prophecy reaches. Some hold that it looks on to a later, religious Babylon as well as the ancient city. Others read it of the historic city, and point to this very passage: "I cannot doubt that Jeremiah 50 and 51 apply to ancient Babylon. The testimony given to Seraiah also says, 'Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her'" (J. N. Darby).
Seraiah's errand took him into a dazzling court, not a ruin.
He was going, with full official standing, to the brilliant court of the mightiest king on earth... He was used to the plain, almost rough simplicity of his own master's court. So he was in great danger of falling for great Babylon's pomp and magnificence. It would appeal strongly to him. His surest safeguard against being charmed or influenced by it in the least was to obey the command God sent him through the prophet.
The same writer draws the line straight to the reader: "we, like Seraiah, have placed in our hands a Book"; knowing the certainty of the world's destruction "keeps the Christian from harbouring in his heart its love."
- Written — Jeremiah put the whole judgment on Babylon into a book, so the word stood on record before anything happened.
- Read — Seraiah had to read it out inside Babylon, at the height of her splendour. Obeying that order kept the splendour from capturing him.
- Weighted — a stone tied to the scroll made the message a sign of ruin: violent, complete, final, irreversible.
- Sunk — it went into the Euphrates, the very river Babylon trusted for safety and the very channel of her fall.
- Never raised — Babylon sinks and never rises again. God disciplines His own people in order to restore them.
and shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise, because of the evil that I will bring upon it and they shall be weary. Thus far the words of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah's long prophecy against Babylon ends with an action, not a speech. A scroll is tied to a stone and dropped into the Euphrates. The chapter also closes Jeremiah's own words, and it leaves two questions: how certain is this fall, and which Babylon is meant?
The place chosen for the sign carried its own message.
Jeremiah wrote the prophecy against Babylon in a book and gave it to Seraiah. Seraiah was to read it when he arrived at Babylon, then tie a stone to the book and throw it into the Euphrates, and say, "Thus shall Babylon sink." So the book went into the river the Babylonians trusted for safety — the very river that was the channel of their destruction.
God dealt with His own people one way and with Babylon another. The difference lies in the purpose.
The judgment on Babylon was going to be final. It would "sink, to rise no more". See how different God's dealings with Babylon are from His dealings with His own people. He disciplined His own people in order to restore them. To be exact, His aim was to restore the part of the people on whom the discipline would have its effect, that is, the remnant. Babylon, on the other hand, would receive a final judgment.
The same acted sign appears again in the last book of the Bible, but with a different actor.
A similar dramatic proceeding pointing to the overthrow of Babylon of old is described in Jeremiah 51:60-64; there, however, Seraiah was the actor; here an angel of might. Both the literal city and the symbolic one were to be destroyed completely and suddenly by violence. We should study Jeremiah 51 and Revelation 18 side by side… At last, when she had filled her cup of wickedness to the full, God rises in His fierce anger. His indignation burns, and Babylon falls to rise no more. Her destruction cannot be undone.
Commentators differ on how far the words reach. Some hold the details to the city standing in Jeremiah's own day.
Note, as to Babylon, this makes it plain, whatever we decide about any later fulfilment, that the testimony then given about the Babylon of that time was meant to stand for ever. Zedekiah and Seraiah, and the testimony read in Babylon at that time, apply to the Babylon then standing, and Babylon was to be desolate for ever. I reject no further teaching here.
Others find more in these chapters than the fall of 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 still future, as Revelation 18 shows, when at last "Babylon shall sink, to rise no more"… Babylon's principles hold wide sway today. As we see the judgment of God on this system, we ourselves are kept clear of it with understanding.
The verse ends on the exhaustion of the people who served this system — the ESV has "they shall become exhausted," where older translations read "they shall be weary."
This is just the poor mad world's work and condition today. They are labouring in vain. Their dreams of worldwide, lasting peace and disarmament, their hope of a golden age without Christ and conversion, are only dreams that will never come true. Their statesmen, their reformers, their social planners, their builders, all are only labouring for the fire. Weariness, utter weariness, and disappointment is their predicted portion.
Seraiah had to read this sentence inside Babylon itself. Anyone holding the same book today stands in a similar place.
The world around us glitters with a glory and a charm. Even the Christian, if he is not on guard, is likely to be influenced by it, or carried away with it altogether… But we, like Seraiah, have a Book placed in our hands. In this Book, "God's Word written," we are told clearly and again and again that this great world-Babylon is doomed… For faith, that breaks the spell of its charm. Knowing that this world will surely be destroyed keeps the Christian from cherishing a love for it in his heart.
This closing clause marks a boundary in the book.
The last verse of the fifty-first chapter ends with "Thus far are the words of Jeremiah." Jeremiah did not write the last chapter of the book. It is a historical appendix, almost the same as 2 Kings 24:18-20, 25. God gave it by inspiration just as much as the rest, and it is needed in its place.
- Sink — The stone tied to the scroll says one thing: Babylon goes down. The river it trusted for protection carried the sentence.
- Not rise — This judgment is final. God's discipline of His own people is different, because it aims to restore them.
- Again — The same sign returns in Revelation 18, this time with a mighty angel. Jeremiah 51 and that chapter are meant to be read side by side.
- Disputed reach — Commentators differ. Some tie the words to the ancient city; others see a system still standing today and still to be judged.
- Weary — Everyone who builds on Babylon ends exhausted. Knowing the verdict in advance keeps the heart free while living inside it.