Jeremiah 50:15, commentary and pictures

The call is for besiegers to surround Babylon on every side until she surrenders and submits, her defenses collapse with fallen foundations and thrown-down walls, and her conquerors repay her in kind for what she has done. Her ruin is the vengeance of the Lord against her violence and oppression and persecution of His people, in which He defends His own while judging the religious system joined to Babylon. This was accomplished by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, when Belshazzar was slain and the kingdom numbered and finished, weighed and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians, and the city taken suddenly on every quarter after a long siege. By double prophecy the overthrow of the ancient city and empire also portrays the day of the Lord and the fall of antitypical Babylon in the last days, the great apostate harlot-system ruling the nations, whose destruction comes under the seventh plague at the end of the world. That mystic Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity, mother with her daughters together, and having rejected the announcement that the hour of judgment is come she is left by the Spirit of God, called out of by His people, and then destroyed.

Ancient Babylon's Overthrow

Shout against her round about is the call for attackers to surround the city, her giving her hand is her surrender and submission, her foundations fallen and walls thrown down is the collapse of her defenses, and take vengeance upon her as she hath done is the command for her attackers to repay her in kind. Her defeat is described as walls and foundations fallen and enemies told to exact retribution because the Lord is repaying Babylon for what it has done. This destruction is the Lord's vengeance, and Babylon is repaid for what she has done.

Her ruin is the vengeance of the Lord repaying Babylon for what she has done, for her violence and oppression. It was vengeance for her persecution of God's people. The chapter presents God as defending His people while judging the religious system associated with Babylon, whose influence did not end with the judgment on the ancient city but continued through later kingdoms that used state power to support religious intolerance.

The verse belongs to a divine message warning ancient Babylon of impending judgment and offering mercy. Babylon ignored the warning, refused healing with sins reaching their full measure, and the declaration of the Lord's vengeance marked the judgment that followed. Her fall so portrayed is final.

The prophecy names the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as the people who would humble Babylon and describes the particular circumstances that would attend it. Its word was exactly accomplished when Cyrus took the city after a siege of nearly two years. It is connected with the historical capture of the city by the Persians, when Belshazzar was slain and Darius the Mede took the kingdom. It means God numbered Belshazzar's kingdom and finished it, weighed Babylon in the balances and found her wanting, and divided her kingdom and gave it to the Medes and Persians. This was announced by the handwriting Numbered, numbered; Weighed; Divisions during Belshazzar's idolatrous feast with the temple vessels, after which Babylon was taken on every quarter in a sudden overthrow while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. The warnings were fulfilled as Cyrus advanced toward Babylon, with a first rumor when he delayed his march and a second the following year with the city's destruction. No might or scheme or power or wealth of man could save a city that sowed within herself the seeds of error, confusion, destruction and death.

The destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew the city but came ultimately as Babylon gradually decayed and became desolate, fulfilling the prophecy literally. She was to fall under the vengeance of the Lord and become wholly desolate, empty, heaps, pools of water, a burnt mountain, a wilderness, a dry land and a desert, a possession for the bittern and a dwelling-place for dragons, a land where no man dwells that astonishes everyone passing by. She shall never be inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation, with its name and remnant cut off. The Arabian shall not pitch tent there nor remain there by night, and shepherds shall not make their folds there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there with lions in the palace ruins, houses full of doleful creatures, owls, bats, and dens with bones of prey. So literally is the desolation fulfilled that the Arabian avoids it from dread of evil spirits. The verse is thus evidence that Jeremiah's prophecies concerning Israel and Judah had been fulfilled, rather than predicting a future return to Canaan.

Type of End-Time Babylon

Jeremiah 50 belongs to the prophecies against Babylon, concerning both the ancient empire and Babylon as a type of the great, mystical Babylon described in Revelation. By double prophecy and sudden transition from type to antitype, the fall of the ancient city and of the empire together also portrays the day of the Lord in which modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished in the last days. It is a vivid picture of the destruction of modern Babylon and of the earth at the end of the world, linked with the judgment poured out in the seventh plague. It concerns the fall of antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system that rules over the nations of the earth, which alone is the subject of the Revelation prophecy of Babylon.

That ancient fall was fulfilled in a sudden overthrow while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, after Babylon refused healing and her sins reached their full measure, and her fall is presented as final. Mystic Babylon is not one church alone but embraces all corrupt Christianity, since the daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon itself and mother and daughters are included together. The judgment on the ancient city did not end that system's influence, which continued through later kingdoms that used state power to support religious intolerance, while God is shown defending His people and judging the religious system associated with Babylon. Having rejected the announcement that the hour of judgment is come, mystic Babylon is left by the Spirit of God, called out of by the people of God, and destroyed immediately after.

The verse does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by a future sudden destruction. Applied to the final overthrow of the nations, the destruction does not kill every beast and bird. They remain and reproduce amid earth's ruins during the thousand years between Christ's coming and the resurrection of the wicked, and they may provide food for those raised then.