And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD.
Chaldea is to be plundered as spoil, and all who plunder her will be satisfied with ample gain from what they carry away. The plundering repays Babylon's proud deeds and violence against the Lord as it had treated others, and it was fulfilled when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus suddenly overthrew the whole Chaldean empire in the night of Belshazzar's idolatrous revelry and divided his kingdom to themselves. By sudden transition from type to antitype the doom applies both to ancient Chaldean Babylon and to the fall of antitypical Babylon predicted in Revelation, the great apostate system of confused and corrupt Christianity ruling over the nations. Ancient Babylon's utter desolation without rebuilding pictures the complete failure of the power opposed to God's kingdom in the day of the Lord, showing that no human might or wealth can save a nation that sows within herself the seeds of error and death.
Judgment on Ancient Chaldea
Chaldea was to become spoil, to be plundered and conquered, and all who spoiled her were to be satisfied, gaining profit and ample spoil and carrying away abundant riches from what they took. The saying stands in the prophecies against foreign nations in chapters 46-51, a section focused especially on Babylon. There it belongs to the divine message warning Babylon of judgment while offering mercy and defending God's people.
The plundering was punishment repaying Babylon's proud and sinful deeds and its violence and sin against the Lord, repaying it as it had treated others. Its people ignored the warning, so the city was not healed. Thus God's truth abides while Babylon's perverted principles of self-exaltation do not stand, and her confusion of error becomes her destruction.
The word was fulfilled in the sudden overthrow of the whole Chaldean empire, not the city alone, by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus. It came while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, in the night of his weak, dissolute, riotous and idolatrous reign when he drank from the plundered vessels of the temple at Jerusalem to gods of gold and wood and stone. Then God numbered and finished his kingdom, weighed him in the balances and found him wanting, and divided his kingdom and gave it to the Medes and Persians, who took Babylon on every quarter and carried away its riches.
That Persian overthrow did not complete the destruction, for the prophecy pointed to eventual ruin of the whole empire and not only the city. There was to be no future rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates to be followed by another sudden destruction, and after the city's later history it gradually fell into decay and became heaps, utterly desolate and without inhabitants. As a sign of its certain destruction the prophecy gave two successive rumors: the first came as Cyrus marched toward Babylon and delayed his advance for about a year after he diverted the Gyndes River, and the second came the following spring, before Babylon's destruction. The chapter stands as evidence that the prophecies concerning Israel and Judah had been fulfilled, including the return of a remnant of the tribes from Babylon to their land.
Type of End-Time Babylon
The doom pronounced on Babylon has a double fulfillment by sudden transition from type to antitype, applying primarily and typically to ancient Chaldean Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians when Chaldea would become a spoil, and applying emphatically to modern Babylon and to the fall of antitypical Babylon predicted in Revelation. The sudden fall struck the whole Chaldean empire while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, not the city of Babylon alone, with no future rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates to be followed by another sudden destruction. That antitypical Babylon whose fall Revelation predicts is alone the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth. It is mystical or modern Babylon, the confused religious world embracing all corrupt Christianity, and its fall and desolation involves also the desolation of the whole earth.
The daughters of Babylon are a part of Babylon itself, just as the daughters of Jerusalem are part of Jerusalem and the daughters of Rabbah are part of Rabbah, so that mystic Babylon to be thrown down as a millstone cast into the sea includes its daughters. When Babylon has rejected the announcement that the hour of God's judgment is come, God leaves her by His Spirit and calls His people out of her, and her destruction immediately follows. That calling out and destruction is the work of the second angel's message addressed to the present generation.
Ancient Babylon's final destruction serves as a picture of the destruction of modern Babylon when God finally brings earthly affairs to a close. Its defeat was punishment for its violence and sin against the Lord, with its attackers to repay it as it had treated others, and it stands as a historical picture of the complete failure and destruction of the power opposed to God's kingdom. In that antitype it typifies the final punishment of the ungodly and of formal professors and of all sinners punished in the day of the Lord. The prophecy is thus applied to the final overthrow of the nations.
Its reference to Chaldea being plundered does not mean that every beast and bird is destroyed, for creatures survive among the earth's ruins, multiply during the thousand years, and may provide food for the wicked raised at the end of that period. The plundering was fulfilled in the night of Belshazzar's weak, dissolute, riotous and idolatrous reign, when he drank from the plundered vessels of the temple at Jerusalem to gods of gold and wood and stone, and God numbered and finished his kingdom, weighed him in the balances and found him wanting, and divided his kingdom and gave it to the Medes and Persians who took Babylon on every quarter and carried away ample spoil to their fill. God's truth abides while Babylon's perverted principles of self-exaltation do not stand, and her confusion of error becomes her destruction, showing that no human might or scheme or power or wealth can save a city or nation that sows within herself the seeds of error, confusion, destruction and death.
Chaldea is to be plundered as spoil, and all who plunder her will be satisfied with ample gain from what they carry away. The plundering repays Babylon's proud deeds and violence against the Lord as it had treated others, and it was fulfilled when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus suddenly overthrew the whole Chaldean empire in the night of Belshazzar's idolatrous revelry and divided his kingdom to themselves. By sudden transition from type to antitype the doom applies both to ancient Chaldean Babylon and to the fall of antitypical Babylon predicted in Revelation, the great apostate system of confused and corrupt Christianity ruling over the nations. Ancient Babylon's utter desolation without rebuilding pictures the complete failure of the power opposed to God's kingdom in the day of the Lord, showing that no human might or wealth can save a nation that sows within herself the seeds of error and death.
Judgment on Ancient Chaldea
Chaldea was to become spoil, to be plundered and conquered, and all who spoiled her were to be satisfied, gaining profit and ample spoil and carrying away abundant riches from what they took. The saying stands in the prophecies against foreign nations in chapters 46-51, a section focused especially on Babylon. There it belongs to the divine message warning Babylon of judgment while offering mercy and defending God's people.
The plundering was punishment repaying Babylon's proud and sinful deeds and its violence and sin against the Lord, repaying it as it had treated others. Its people ignored the warning, so the city was not healed. Thus God's truth abides while Babylon's perverted principles of self-exaltation do not stand, and her confusion of error becomes her destruction.
The word was fulfilled in the sudden overthrow of the whole Chaldean empire, not the city alone, by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus. It came while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, in the night of his weak, dissolute, riotous and idolatrous reign when he drank from the plundered vessels of the temple at Jerusalem to gods of gold and wood and stone. Then God numbered and finished his kingdom, weighed him in the balances and found him wanting, and divided his kingdom and gave it to the Medes and Persians, who took Babylon on every quarter and carried away its riches.
That Persian overthrow did not complete the destruction, for the prophecy pointed to eventual ruin of the whole empire and not only the city. There was to be no future rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates to be followed by another sudden destruction, and after the city's later history it gradually fell into decay and became heaps, utterly desolate and without inhabitants. As a sign of its certain destruction the prophecy gave two successive rumors: the first came as Cyrus marched toward Babylon and delayed his advance for about a year after he diverted the Gyndes River, and the second came the following spring, before Babylon's destruction. The chapter stands as evidence that the prophecies concerning Israel and Judah had been fulfilled, including the return of a remnant of the tribes from Babylon to their land.
Type of End-Time Babylon
The doom pronounced on Babylon has a double fulfillment by sudden transition from type to antitype, applying primarily and typically to ancient Chaldean Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians when Chaldea would become a spoil, and applying emphatically to modern Babylon and to the fall of antitypical Babylon predicted in Revelation. The sudden fall struck the whole Chaldean empire while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, not the city of Babylon alone, with no future rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates to be followed by another sudden destruction. That antitypical Babylon whose fall Revelation predicts is alone the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth. It is mystical or modern Babylon, the confused religious world embracing all corrupt Christianity, and its fall and desolation involves also the desolation of the whole earth.
The daughters of Babylon are a part of Babylon itself, just as the daughters of Jerusalem are part of Jerusalem and the daughters of Rabbah are part of Rabbah, so that mystic Babylon to be thrown down as a millstone cast into the sea includes its daughters. When Babylon has rejected the announcement that the hour of God's judgment is come, God leaves her by His Spirit and calls His people out of her, and her destruction immediately follows. That calling out and destruction is the work of the second angel's message addressed to the present generation.
Ancient Babylon's final destruction serves as a picture of the destruction of modern Babylon when God finally brings earthly affairs to a close. Its defeat was punishment for its violence and sin against the Lord, with its attackers to repay it as it had treated others, and it stands as a historical picture of the complete failure and destruction of the power opposed to God's kingdom. In that antitype it typifies the final punishment of the ungodly and of formal professors and of all sinners punished in the day of the Lord. The prophecy is thus applied to the final overthrow of the nations.
Its reference to Chaldea being plundered does not mean that every beast and bird is destroyed, for creatures survive among the earth's ruins, multiply during the thousand years, and may provide food for the wicked raised at the end of that period. The plundering was fulfilled in the night of Belshazzar's weak, dissolute, riotous and idolatrous reign, when he drank from the plundered vessels of the temple at Jerusalem to gods of gold and wood and stone, and God numbered and finished his kingdom, weighed him in the balances and found him wanting, and divided his kingdom and gave it to the Medes and Persians who took Babylon on every quarter and carried away ample spoil to their fill. God's truth abides while Babylon's perverted principles of self-exaltation do not stand, and her confusion of error becomes her destruction, showing that no human might or scheme or power or wealth can save a city or nation that sows within herself the seeds of error, confusion, destruction and death.