Jeremiah 50:27, commentary and pictures

All of Babylon's young bulls are to be cut down and brought to killing, which means her mighty leaders and fighting men are marked for slaughter, and the cry of woe over them declares that their fixed day of reckoning and punishment has come. The sentence belongs to God's announced doom upon Babylon for her sin and pride against Him, warning of utter desolation and certain destruction while mercy was still offered, but she would not be healed. Spoken long beforehand, it was fulfilled when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus captured the city and the Persian empire took the place of Babylon at the head of the kingdoms, in a sudden overthrow while the king and his lords felt secure in feasting. That ancient fall also stands as a type of the fall of mystical, modern Babylon, so the prophecy has a double application with its primary fulfillment in proud ancient Babylon and its emphatic fulfillment in the final destruction of the great apostate system that rules the nations in the day of the Lord as shown in Revelation 18. It foretells the fall of the Babylonian empire as well as the city, embracing all corrupt Christianity including the daughters of mystic Babylon, and its application reaches to the final overthrow of all nations.

Words and Historical Fulfillment

Slay all her bullocks means put all her young bulls to death and send them down to the slaughter, for her powerful leaders and warriors are doomed to slaughter. Woe unto them, for their day is come, the time of their visitation means their appointed day and time of punishment and judgment has arrived. The verse belongs to the prophecy and announcement of Babylon's doom, utter desolation, and certain destruction for its sin and pride against the Lord and the error and corruption within it.

It was part of God's message to Babylon warning of impending judgment while offering mercy, but Babylon ignored the warning and was not healed. Its destruction is God's visitation against it in defense of His people and stands as witness to the persecution carried out by pagan Babylon. Spoken many years before the fall, it was fulfilled when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as general captured Babylon, so that the Persian empire replaced Babylon, the head of gold, in the succession of kingdoms. That was a sudden overthrow while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure.

The fulfillment came when Babylon alone still held out in the east and Cyrus, an instrument appointed by the Lord of hosts over two hundred and sixty years before, laid regular siege to it for nearly two years. Though the city was sixty miles in circumference with impregnable walls and provision for twenty years and scoffed in security, the Euphrates running through the city was turned aside into a trench and an artificial lake until its channel was left almost dry. On the night of an annual festival when the king and city were given to feasting, drunkenness and revelry, the brass gates in the river walls on every street were left open, so the soldiers found free entrance into the heart of the city and destruction came suddenly ere they were aware.

The prophecy gave a sign that a rumor would be heard and about a year later another rumor and destruction would follow, fulfilled as Cyrus marched toward Babylon when after a delay of about a year the second rumor came followed by destruction. Yet the destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon but came ultimately as the city gradually declined and became desolate, fulfilling the prophecy literally.

Antitypical and Final Fulfillment

Ancient Babylon and its empire also serve as a type of mystical Babylon, and the prophecy against Babylon pronouncing its doom belongs to that typical framework. Its downfall serves as a type of the fate of great, mystical Babylon described in Revelation. Its final destruction portrays the judgment that would come when Babylon's time of visitation arrived, and the destruction of ancient Babylon is presented as a vivid picture of the final destruction of modern Babylon.

The prophecy makes a sudden transition from type to antitype and has a double application and fulfillment. Its primary and typical fulfillment was in the fall and humbling of the proud ancient city and empire, in a sudden overthrow while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. Its emphatic fulfillment is in the day of the Lord when modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished, as shown in Revelation 18, namely the fall of antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system that rules over the nations of the earth.

Its application includes the final overthrow of all nations. It does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by a sudden destruction; it foretells the fall of the Babylonian empire as well as the city. As shown in Jeremiah 50, the daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon just as the daughters of Jerusalem form a part of Jerusalem and the daughters of Rabbah form a part of Rabbah, meaning great Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity, including the daughters of mystic Babylon. In that final destruction, not all beasts and birds are destroyed; they remain and multiply amid the earth's ruins.