Jeremiah 50:2, commentary and pictures

The verse is a command to proclaim openly among the nations without concealment, lifting up a standard to publish the news far and wide. The news to be published is that Babylon is taken and overthrown, not merely the city but the empire, suddenly in the midst of security, and that Bel and Merodach with her idols and images are confounded, disgraced, shattered and destroyed, exposing their powerlessness in judgment upon idolatry. This was fulfilled when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, called by name to the work over two hundred and sixty years before, besieged and took Babylon in 538 B.C. in the sixteenth year of Belshazzar, turning the Euphrates from its channel and entering on the night of idolatrous feasting and drunken security when the river gates were left open, ending Babylonian rule. The overthrow was not completed at once, but the city gradually fell into complete desolation inhabited only by beasts and birds, marking the collapse of state-supported idol-worship from its former dominance so that it was never restored to its preeminence. The fall has a double application beyond the ancient city and empire, as a type of the final judgment on antitypical mystical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system and confused religious world of Revelation, whose overthrow comes at the close of earthly history with the fall of all nations.

Announcement and Ancient Fulfillment

The command is to declare and publish the news openly among the nations, to conceal nothing, and to set up a standard as the proclamation is made. The message to be published is that Babylon is taken, that Bel is confounded and Merodach is broken in pieces, and that her idols and images are confounded, disgraced, shattered and destroyed. That shattering exposes the powerlessness of the gods and presents the fall as a judgment on idolatry.

The verse belongs to the prophecy foretelling Babylon's destruction and overthrow. It foretells the fall not merely of the city but of the empire, coming suddenly in the midst of security while the king and his lords felt safe. The prophecy named beforehand the people who would take Babylon and the particular circumstances attending it. It was fulfilled when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus besieged and took Babylon, the last city holding out in the east, in the sixteenth year of Belshazzar in 538 B.C., ending Babylonian rule.

Cyrus had been called by name and appointed to the work over two hundred and sixty years before. After a siege of nearly two years he turned the Euphrates from its channel and entered on the night of annual feasting and revelry, when the brass gates in the river walls were left open. At that time the king and the city had given themselves to security, drunkenness and impious feasting. Literal Babylon fell under Belshazzar the weak, dissolute, riotous, idolatrous blasphemer, who feasted over her greatness and drank to gods of gold and wood and stone from the plundered vessels of the temple. While he drank, God wrote Numbered, numbered; Weighed; Divisions on the wall, meaning his kingdom was numbered and finished, he was weighed in the balances and found wanting, and his kingdom was divided and given to the Medes and Persians. That same night messengers ran crying on every quarter that Babylon was taken.

The destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon, but was ultimately fulfilled as the city gradually fell into decay and became desolate, a complete desolation. In its ruins beasts and birds survive and multiply. The fall marked not only political defeat but the collapse of state-supported idol-worship from its former dominance. After Persia conquered Babylon, with its temples and city ruined, that religious system declined and was never restored to its former preeminence.

The verse belongs to a divine message of judgment, warning and offered mercy to ancient Babylon, but the warning was ignored. Its announcement declares the fallen condition and certain destruction of Babylon and the defeat of its idols. The surrounding prophecy also gave as a sign two rumors before the destruction, fulfilled as Cyrus delayed his march for a year and then advanced. The surrounding prophecy further shows that the prophecies concerning Israel and Judah were fulfilled in that a remnant from each tribe returned from Babylon, with people continuing to return over a period of years. It presents Babylon's character, God's defense of His people, and judgment on the system associated with Babylon, where the judgment overthrew the city and nation but the religious system continued through later kingdoms, and the chapters stand as testimony to pagan Babylon's persecution of God's people.

Type of Mystical Babylon

The prophecy does not predict a rebuilding of the old city on the Euphrates followed by a sudden destruction. It predicts the fall not of the city alone but of the empire, coming suddenly in the midst of security while the king and his lords felt safe. It has a double application to the fall of the ancient city and empire and to the fall of antitypical Babylon, standing both as the ancient empire and as a type of mystical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth.

The fall of ancient Babylon is a type of the final judgment on modern spiritual Babylon, the confused religious world, at the close of earthly history when God brings earthly affairs to an end. The announcement that Babylon is taken therefore points beyond the ancient nation to the later fall of modern Babylon. Its application extends to the final overthrow of all nations, in which not all beasts and birds are destroyed but they survive and multiply amid the earth's ruins.

The fate pronounced against Babylon is a type of the doom of the great, mystical Babylon described in Revelation. The daughters of Babylon are part of Babylon itself, so mystic Babylon includes her daughters. Great Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity, mother and daughters together.

Having rejected the announcement that the hour of judgment has come, she is left forever by God's Spirit. God's people are then called to come out of her. Her destruction immediately follows that call.