Jeremiah 50:28
The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple. The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.
The verse describes those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon declaring in Zion that the Lord has avenged His cause and His temple upon Babylon for persecuting His people and profaning His sanctuary. Its surrounding prophecy presents Babylon's destruction as punishment for its sins and pride against the Lord, fulfilled when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus besieged and entered Babylon and ended the Babylonian empire in B.C. 538. That vengeance answered Babylonian cupidity in plundering the gold and silver vessels of the holy temple at Jerusalem and Belshazzar's idolatrous blasphemy in drinking from them to gods of gold and wood and stone. The prophecy applies both to the ancient empire and to mystical Babylon, with Babylon as a type of the great apostate harlot-system whose fate is prophesied in Revelation. By sudden transition from type to antitype the fleeing and escaping portrays God's call for His people to come out of mystic Babylon after she rejected the proclamation of the hour of His judgment, with its emphatic fulfillment in the day of the Lord in Revelation 18.
Ancient Babylon's Destruction Foretold
Jeremiah 50:28 belongs to God's message through Jeremiah to ancient Babylon, warning of impending judgment while also offering mercy. Babylon ignored that warning, and its destruction came as the result of refusing the message. The surrounding prophecy presents that destruction as punishment for Babylon's sins and pride against the Lord.
The prophecy was fulfilled when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as generalissimo besieged and entered Babylon after nearly two years and ended the Babylonian empire in B.C. 538. By that conquest the Persian Empire was raised in its place. The fall came suddenly upon the empire, not merely the city, while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure.
The chapter gives signs preceding the fall, and in the historical fulfillment Cyrus's advance brought a first rumor, his delay of about a year was followed by a second rumor, and then Babylon was destroyed. That overthrow by the Persians did not complete the predicted destruction, which pointed to its eventual ruin. Babylon declined gradually and became desolate literally. The prophecies of Israel and Judah's return from Babylon were fulfilled over a period of years, with a remnant from every tribe returning while those who remained in Babylon became part of the local population.
Vengeance for Temple Proclaimed
The voice heard in the verse is that of fugitives escaping from the land of Babylon to Zion, declaring that the Lord has avenged His own cause and taken vengeance for His temple. Their announcement belongs to the judgment of Babylon, whose destruction is punishment for its sins and its pride against the Lord. The prophecy of that doom presents Babylon as a type of the great mystical Babylon whose fate is foretold in Revelation. The flight to Zion displays God's defense of His persecuted people, for the escapees proclaim that God has avenged Babylon for persecuting them and for profaning His temple. That vengeance was accomplished through the destruction of Babylon by the Medes as judgment upon its religious system.
The vengeance for the temple answered Babylonian cupidity in plundering the gold and silver vessels of the holy temple at Jerusalem. It answered also Belshazzar's idolatrous blasphemy in drinking from those vessels in honor of gods of gold and of wood and stone. In that night his kingdom was numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians.
When the judgment came, messengers sped on every quarter crying that Babylon was taken, and the people cried that Babylon was fallen. That fall proves that no might or scheme or power or wealth of man can save a city or nation that sows within herself the seeds of error, confusion, destruction, and death.
Type of Mystic Babylon
The prophecy against Babylon applies both to the ancient empire and to mystical Babylon, for Babylon in this prophecy is a type of the great, mystical Babylon whose fate is prophesied in Revelation. It speaks of people fleeing out of Babylon to Zion and declaring the Lord's vengeance, including vengeance for His temple. The verse has a double application to the fall of the ancient city and empire and to the fall of antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system that rules over the nations of the earth. It includes not merely the fall of the city but the fall of the empire, coming suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, and it will not be fulfilled by a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by a sudden destruction.
By sudden transition from type to antitype the prophecy of ancient Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians also portrays the day of the Lord in which modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished. That modern Babylon is the religious world in the day when God ends earthly affairs. Its emphatic fulfillment is in Revelation 18.
The daughters of Babylon are a part of Babylon itself, so mystic Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity with its daughters included. The fleeing and escaping out of the land of Babylon to declare in Zion is God's call for His people to come out of her after she rejected the proclamation The hour of his judgment is come and God left her by His Spirit, and her destruction immediately follows. The verse is included among prophecies applied to the final overthrow of the nations, and it supports the view that animals and birds will not all be destroyed at Christ's second coming but will live and reproduce among the ruins of the earth.