CHAPTER 51

(595 B.C.)

THE LORDS JUDGMENT ON BABYLON

¹Thus says the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them who dwell in the midst of them who rise up against Me, a destroying wind (the essence of this Verse is: the Word of the Lord had been given to the Babylonian leaders by Daniel, the Hebrew children, and possibly others, but it was rejected; in fact, for the most part, it was greatly opposed!

A destroying wind, referred to the coming Medes and Persians);

²And will send unto Babylon fanners, who shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about. (And will send unto Babylon fanners, has reference to the threshingfloor, where the grain was separated from the chaff. The violent crushing of the stalk preceded this, typifying the destruction of Babylon.)

³Against him who bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him who lifts himself up in his brigandine: and spare you not her young men; destroy you utterly all her host. (The idea of this Verse is that the expert archers of the Medes and Persians will find that their marksmanship is even more accurate, inasmuch as the Lord will actually help them, even though they will not be aware of such!)

⁴Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they who are thrust through in her streets. (Thrust through has to do with the accuracy of the archers of Verse 3.)

JUDAH AND ISRAEL STILL GODS CHOSEN PEOPLE

⁵For Israel has not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of Hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. (Though their land was filled with sin, means to be full of desolation in consequence of their guilt. The argument is that although the desolation of Israel seemed to evidence Jehovahs desertion of His People, the destruction of Babylon proved the contrary, hence, the importance of the word For.)

FUTURE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON

⁶Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORDs vengeance; He will render unto her a recompence. (The command to flee out of Babylon actually pertains to Rev. 18:4.)

⁷Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORDs hand, that made all the Earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. (Babylon was the head of gold [Dan. 2:38], and the golden cup of dominion in the Earth was committed to her princes. But they filled that pure and costly vessel with the maddening wine of idolatry; hence, the justice of their doom.

That made all the Earth drunken, refers to mans efforts to rebuild the Garden of Eden without the Tree of Life in its midst, i.e., Christ.

Once again, this points to the coming Great Tribulation.)

⁸Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. (The prediction of this Verse yet awaits fulfillment, for ancient Babylon was slowly, not suddenly, destroyed. Restored Babylon will perish like Sodom [Rev. 16:19; Chpts. 17-18].)

IMMEDIATE DESTRUCTION

⁹We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reaches unto Heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. (We would have healed Babylon, refers to Daniel and the Hebrew children, plus others, attempting to turn Babylon from her evil ways, but to no avail. Similarly, the efforts of Gods present people have also failed to heal corrupt Christendom, the modern spiritual Babylon. Hence, Paul would say, Come out from among them [II Cor. 6:17].)

¹⁰The LORD has brought forth our righ teousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the Work of the LORD our God. (This Verse pertains to the Deliverance of the exiles, as well as their Restoration at a future day. In other words, it reaches even unto the coming Kingdom Age, which will see the last great Restoration.)

¹¹Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of His Temple. (The argument of Verses 11 through 14 is the uselessness of a military defense of Babylon, for God has purposed and would accomplish her destruction.)

¹²Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD has both devised and done that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. (Gods dealings with this world concern two things: His children and His Plan. Consequently, anything that impacts His Children, as did Babylon, also involves His Plan and is, therefore, given to us in the Bible.)

¹³O you who dwells upon many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, and the measure of your covetousness. (The future reference of this Passage has to do with the efforts of the Antichrist to take over the world, which he will be well on his way to doing. In fact, he would succeed, but for the Coming of the Lord. However, the Second Coming will cut him off.)

¹⁴The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, as with caterpillars; and they shall lift up a shout against you. (No doubt, Babylons population during the siege by the Medes and the Persians swelled to possibly even several hundreds of thousands of people. But still, the great numbers would do no good, because the opposing force would be larger, and would lift up a shout against you, i.e., a victory shout.)

¹⁵He has made the Earth by His power; He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by His understanding. (The creative Power, Glory, and Wisdom of God are contrasted with the ignorance of idolaters and the vanity of their idols. The indication of this Verse is this:

The Earth was made by the Lord and consequently belongs to Him. As well, He has established all its laws regarding its governance. This includes the heavens, i.e., the Universes, as well!

As such, He has the right to perform the necessary acts to save it from those who would destroy it; consequently, every system that is not of His making will ultimately be eliminated.)

¹⁶When He utters His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and He causes the vapours to ascend from the ends of the Earth: He makes lightnings with rain, and brings forth the wind out of His treasures. (This Verse says: The Lord controls the elements and does so by uttering His Voice; the elements instantly obey, but rebellious man will not obey!)

¹⁷Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image; for his molten image: is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. (Every founder is confounded by the graven image, means that the worshipper of idols becomes like the idols. His molten image is falsehood; therefore, this brutish man is a lie and lives a lie. Such is the world without God!)

¹⁸They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. (They are vanity, speaks of all the works of man. Because of the way man fell in the Garden of Eden, and because of his unlawful quest to be like God [or, in fact, to be God], he has tried to fashion his own salvation. It is a work of errors.)

¹⁹The portion of Jacob is not like them; for He is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of His inheritance: the LORD of Hosts is His Name. (The portion of Jacob, refers to Emmanuel. When the Portion is not Christ Alone, Babylon swallows the Church, even as Babylon has swallowed the Church.

As Israel was the rod, i.e., scepter, of His inheritance, so today is the Church. The phrase means that Israel, as a son, will ultimately inherit the total kingdom.)

THE MEDES, GODS INSTRUMENT AGAINST BABYLON

²⁰You 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 (You are My battle axe and weapons of war, refers to Cyrus as the head of the Medes and Persians, who would execute Gods vengeance and destroy kingdoms);

²¹And with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider (while the Medes and the Persians would be the instruments, Jehovah would be the Author);

²²With you also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces old and young; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the maid (the judgment was just because all were involved in the rebellion against God. Cyrus, as stated, was to be this instrument);

²³I will also break in pieces with you the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with you will I break in pieces captains and rulers.

²⁴And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says the LORD. (The commission given to Cyrus reveals the justice which inflicted on Babylon miseries similar to those that she inflicted on others.)

²⁵Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says the LORD, which destroyed all the Earth: and I will stretch out My hand upon you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain. (In the Bible, great empires are addressed as mountains, with the phrase, Destroying mountain, referring to all the conquests of the Babylonian Empire. However, despite all of its power, the Lord said that He would make it a burnt mountain. And so He did!)

BABYLON TO BE DESOLATE FOREVER

²⁶And they shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate forever, says the LORD. (Once again, this Passage reaches forward to the coming Great Tribulation, when Babylon, the rebuilt city, will then be totally and completely destroyed, and done so instantly, one might say [Rev., Chpt. 18].)

²⁷Set you up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars. (The countries represented in this Passage are modern Armenia and Asia Minor. Verses 17 through 33 are another call for the immediate destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians, but with certain phrases referring to the coming Great Tribulation.)

²⁸Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. (Jeremiah is giving this Prophecy about 50 years before the fall of Babylon, and yet the Lord proclaims the fact that it will be the Medes who will overcome this mighty Empire.)

²⁹And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. (Once again, the essence of the Text leaps forward to the coming Great Tribulation.)

³⁰The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might has failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken. (This Passage predicts the coming softness of Babylon because of corruption. When the Medes and the Persians laid siege to the city, Babylon was no longer depending on her mighty army, but rather on the defenses of the impregnable city; impregnable they thought! Its leaders and military had grown lazy, corrupt, soft, and effeminate. Consequently, the Scripture aptly describes them when it says, they became as women.)

³¹One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end (That his city is taken at one end, refers to the eastern portion being taken, after which the western portion fell!),

³²And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. (Cyrus diverted the river, marched his soldiers down the dry bed, and seized the boats or ferries at each gate. He found the gates unlocked, which should have been closed to keep invaders out of the city. But through negligence, the gates were left open. Verses 30 through 32 proclaim this fact some 50 years before it actually happened.)

³³For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. (For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, portrays the absolute control held by the Lord regarding the disposition of men, nations, and empires.)

ISRAELS COMPLAINT

³⁴Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a dragon, he has filled his belly with my delicates, he has cast me out. (Even though Nebuchadnezzar was commissioned by God to destroy Judah and Jerusalem, still, it seems he carried his commission too far, engaging Judah and Jerusalem with great cruelty.

But yet, the Lord dealt greatly with Nebuchadnezzar through the Prophet Daniel, with some indication that he made Jehovah his Saviour [Dan. 4:37].)

³⁵The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. (As violence was done to me, i.e., Judah and Jerusalem, likewise, violence will be done to Babylon.)

GOD WILL AVENGE ISRAEL

³⁶Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. (And I will dry up her sea, refers to Cyrus diverting the Euphrates, which enabled him to take the city. In this, the Lord would plead the cause of Israel.)

³⁷And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. (The total fulfillment of this Passage awaits its future rebuilding and subsequent destruction, which will be done instantly [Rev., Chpt. 18].)

³⁸They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions whelps. (Babylon is symbolized by the Holy Spirit as a lion [Dan. 7:4]. However, their roar, when attacked by the invader, will be as a little cub and, therefore, unable to defend themselves.)

³⁹In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the LORD. (The drunken and boastful feast of Belshazzar is pictured in Verses 38 through 40. Historians suggest it was celebrated in honor of the great goddess Shac, and was accompanied by grossly obscene ceremonies. The introduction of the Temple vessels [Dan. 5:2] into such an orgy of idolatry and impurity emphasizes the bold vileness of the Babylonian monarch. That night they died!)

⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats. (As Jerusalem was a lamb to the slaughter, likewise was Babylon!)

⁴¹How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole Earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! (There is some evidence that one of the goddesses of the Babylonians was Shac, i.e., Sheshach.

The whole Earth surprised, refers to the supposed impregnability of Babylon and its subduction by Cyrus. As such, it became an astonishment among the nations.)

⁴²The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. (The sea and the waves are metaphors referring to the Medes and the Persians.)

⁴³Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass thereby. (Once again, this pertains to the coming Great Tribulation, when rebuilt Babylon will be totally decimated, and in the time of one hour [Rev. 18:10].)

⁴⁴And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: ye s, the wall of Babylon shall fall. (Bel was the patron deity of Babylon. The wall of Babylon was 300 feet high, 90 feet wide, and 60 miles long. It formed a square having 25 huge gates of brass and 250 towers on each face in all, 100 brazen gates and 1,000 towers. However, these great walls were breached by the Medes and the Persians.)

COMMAND TO LEAVE BABYLON; JUDGMENT COMING

⁴⁵My People, go you out of the midst of her, and deliver you every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. (If possible, the captive Jews were to leave the city at the time of the siege by the Medes and the Persians, because it was sure to fall and result in a great slaughter.)

⁴⁶And lest your heart faint, and you fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. (History records that the first year a rumor reached Babylon of the Median preparations for invasion; in the second year, a rumor arrived announcing that the Medes had set out on the expedition; and the following year, which was the third year of Belshazzar, they captured the city.)

⁴⁷Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. (Some 50 years before it actually happened, the Lord warned of the coming judgment because of Babylons continued idol worship. Not only was this warning given here, but it was also given by Daniel and the Hebrew children, even at a later time. Therefore, Babylon was without excuse.)

⁴⁸Then the heaven and the Earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, says the LORD. (Shall sing for Babylon, refers to rejoicing in both Heaven and Earth because of her destruction. This speaks of the coming Great Tribulation, when Babylon will be destroyed under the Seventh Vial [Rev., Chpt. 18].)

⁴⁹As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the Earth. (This Passage refers to the coming destruction of Babylon, as stated, under the Seventh Vial [Rev. 16:17-21]. In the last half of the Great Tribulation, Israel will face what looks like certain annihilation. Babylon, i.e., the Antichrist, will press for her destruction and come very close to succeeding, and would succeed, but for the Coming of the Lord; this Coming will occasion the slaying of possibly millions [Ezek., Chpts. 38-39].)

COMMAND TO RETURN TO ZION

⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. (You who have escaped the sword, refers to the fact that possibly some of the exiles were killed in Babylon by the invasion by Cyrus. The exiles were to plan to return to Jerusalem just as soon as Cyrus gave the command [Ezra 1:1-4].

Remember the LORD afar off, referred to His desired dwellingplace in Jerusalem. Hence, this was to be on their mind.)

⁵¹We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORDs House. (This refers to the soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar, who, when taking Jerusalem, went into the Temple, taking all its treasures, and then destroying the building.

As a result, because of their 70 years of captivity, they have suffered reproach and shame has covered our faces.)

JUDGMENT ON BABYLON

⁵²Wherefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan. (And that day did come, and the Babylonian Kingdom fell!)

⁵³Though Babylon should mount up to Heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall spoilers come unto her, sa ys the LORD. (The height of her strength refers to her walls being fortified, but to no avail! She would not recognize God; therefore, He sent spoilers unto her, which spelled out trouble of every description, until finally she fell to the Medes and the Persians.)

⁵⁴A sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans (this was the cry of defeat!):

⁵⁵Because the LORD has spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered (the great voice and waves were the loud boastings of Babylon. The boastings were silenced!):

⁵⁶Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite. (For the LORD God of recompenses shall surely requite, proclaims that which is true of not only Gods dealings with ancient Babylon, but in every other circumstance, as well! [Mat. 7:2].)

⁵⁷And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the King, Whose Name is the LORD of Hosts. (The perpetual sleep refers to the phrase, In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain [Dan. 5:30]. The title king concerning Belshazzar is compared with the title King, Whose Name is the LORD of Hosts. Of the two Kings, there is no comparison.)

⁵⁸Thus says the LORD of Hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary. (Immense multitudes of slaves were employed in building the mighty walls and fashioning in the fire the brazen gates of Babylon; but their labor was in vain, and only secured weariness. This result is emphatically declared twice in Verses 58 and 64. Such is the one and only and invariable result of human toil, whether religious or physical, without God.

Thus, this Fifty-eighth Verse concludes the Prophecy given to Jeremiah concerning Babylon and its destruction, which, as stated, was given about 50 years before the actual fact. It came true in totality, even as every Word of the Lord is true in totality!)

⁵⁹The word which Jeremiah the Prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince. (In the fourth year of his reign, refers to the reign of Zedekiah, when he and Seraiah went to renew vows of allegiance to Babylon. However, soon after returning home, Zedekiah broke his vows and rebelled against the king of Babylon [II Ki. 24:17-20].

Seraiah was probably in charge of the gifts that were to be made to the king of Babylon.)

⁶⁰So Jeremiah wrote in a Book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. (This Volume of Prophecies concerning Babylon was dispatched to that city some 6 years before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The exiles were instructed to read the Prophecies carefully, which no doubt strengthened them greatly, even in the time of their supreme calamity.)

⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, and shall see, and shall read all these words (upon hearing these Prophecies read, the exiles probably wondered how such could even begin to come to pass; and yet those with faith knew that most assuredly they would come to pass);

⁶²Then shall you say, O LORD, You have spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever. (What a statement, especially in view of the present splendor of Babylon! Only God could predict such, and many years before the fact, and bring it to pass.)

⁶³And it shall be, when you have made an end of reading this Book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:

⁶⁴And you shall say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. (The sinking of the stone with the Prophecies attached portrayed Babylons demise. As well, this worlds system, symbolized by Babylon of old, is going to sink and will not rise from the evil [judgment] that God will bring upon her. This will happen at the Second Coming!)