Jeremiah 50:21, commentary and pictures

Go up against the land of Merathaim and the inhabitants of Pekod, that is against Babylon and its people, to waste and utterly destroy them according to all the Lord commanded. The judgment came because Babylon sowed error, confusion and death through self-exaltation, idolatry and blasphemy and persecuted God's people, and after she refused the warning and healing offered her the destruction numbered and finished by God fell suddenly in the midst of her security. It was fulfilled when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus marched against Babylon and took the city on every quarter in the night of Belshazzar's idolatrous feast, when he was weighed and found wanting and was slain and his kingdom divided to the Medes and Persians. That overthrow pointed beyond itself to eventual desolation, as the city gradually decayed into heaps without inhabitants and was left desolate, as shown by the stone-tied scroll cast into the Euphrates declaring Babylon would sink and not rise. What applied typically to ancient Babylon applies emphatically to modern spiritual Babylon, for the prophecy makes a sudden transition from type to antitype and has a double fulfillment in the fall of the ancient city and empire and in the destruction of antitypical Babylon, the great apostate system, at the end of the world.

Judgment on Ancient Babylon

The command is to go up against the land of Merathaim and against the inhabitants of Pekod — that is, against Babylon and its inhabitants — and to waste and utterly destroy them, doing according to all the Lord commanded. It belongs to the prophecy of Babylon's judgment and destruction, God's prediction and command that Babylon be wasted and utterly destroyed. Merathaim and Pekod are the places named against which the conqueror was to act, with Babylon itself named through Merathaim and Pekod. Those who held it identified that conqueror as Nebuchadnezzar.

The verse belongs to God's message of judgment, warning, and offered mercy sent to Babylon through Jeremiah; Babylon ignored the warning, refused the healing offered, and was not healed, so final destruction followed. That destruction was numbered and finished by God because she sowed error, confusion, and death through self-exaltation, idolatry, and blasphemy. It was because Babylon persecuted God's people and drew His open and irreconcilable hostility to its religious system, and the last part of Jeremiah 50 with Jeremiah 51 sets forth its character and God's vengeance of His temple in defense of His people, which caused the overthrow of the city and nation. The verse means the fall not merely of the city but of the empire, a sudden fall in the midst of the security felt by Belshazzar and his lords. No might, scheme, power, or wealth of man can save a city or nation that sows within herself the seeds of error and confusion.

The judgment was fulfilled as the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, as instruments of Providence, marched against Babylon, and the prophecy was presented as fulfilled before the Persian empire took Babylon's place. The chapter foretold destruction after two rumors, with a delay of about a year after the first rumor, then the second rumor and Babylon's destruction. It was fulfilled in the night of Belshazzar's idolatrous feast when he drank from the sacred vessels of Jerusalem's temple to gods of gold and wood and stone, the handwriting declared he was weighed in the balances and found wanting and his kingdom divided and given to the Medes and Persians, and before the king rose Babylon was taken on every quarter, when the Persians captured the city and Belshazzar was killed. That overthrow by the Persians did not complete the predicted ruin; the prophecy pointed to eventual ruin and utter desolation, fulfilled as the city gradually decayed, became heaps without inhabitants, and was left desolate. This was symbolized by the stone-tied scroll cast into the Euphrates declaring Babylon would sink and not rise from the evil brought upon it, whose ruins stand as evidence of fulfillment.

Type of Final Babylon

Babylon in Jeremiah's day was a type of the great, mystical Babylon whose fate is prophesied in Revelation. The prophecy makes a sudden transition from type to antitype and has a double fulfillment and double application to the fall of the ancient city and empire and to antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth. The prophecy in Revelation concerns that apostate system alone and is to be read with Revelation 18. What applied typically to ancient Babylon applies emphatically to modern spiritual Babylon. Its overthrow serves as a vivid picture of the destruction of modern spiritual Babylon at the end of the world.

That destruction is also the punishment of all sinners in the day of the Lord, with an application including the final overthrow of all nations. A city includes its daughters, so the daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon itself, just as the daughters of Jerusalem are part of Jerusalem and the daughters of Rabbah are part of Rabbah. Therefore the great mystic Babylon to be thrown down like a millstone into the mighty deep includes its daughters and embraces all corrupt Christianity. Having rejected the announcement that the hour of judgment is come, that corrupt Christianity is left by His Spirit, with His people called to come out of her before her destruction follows.

The last part of Jeremiah 50 with Jeremiah 51 sets forth the character of Babylon and God's vengeance upon it, the vengeance of His temple in defense of His people, which caused the overthrow of the city and nation and shows God's open and irreconcilable hostility to the Babylonian system of religion. But for such judgments of God upon the nations, the states influenced by the Babylonian system would have crushed out the last follower of Christ. Yet the same system was perpetuated and state power was turned to its support in succeeding kingdoms. The prophecy was fulfilled for Israel and Judah, as evidence against a future return of Israel and Judah to Canaan.

It will not be fulfilled by a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by sudden destruction. In the final application, which includes the final overthrow of all nations, not all beasts and birds are destroyed at Christ's second coming. They live and multiply amid the earth's ruins during the thousand years.