Jeremiah 50:30, commentary and pictures

The verse is part of the burden of doom pronounced against Babylon long before its fall, foretelling that in the day of judgment her young men would fall dead in the streets and all her warriors would be killed and cut off. This slaughter is God's judgment upon the sinful and proud city, attacked and brought to ruin until it lies in heaps, desolate and uninhabited. It was exactly fulfilled when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, appointed as the Lord's instrument, took Babylon after its long resistance in the East. The fulfillment came as a sudden massacre at the Persian capture, when the inhabitants were drunken with feasting and revelry, caught unprepared and unable to resist. It has a double meaning and double fulfillment, pointing beyond the fall of the ancient city and empire to antitypical Babylon, the great apostate system of confused and corrupt Christianity, whose punishment in the day of the Lord is portrayed with Revelation 18.

Judgment Pronounced on Babylon

Jeremiah 50:30 belongs to the burden and prophecy of doom against Babylon, uttered many years before its fall. It stands among the prophecies against foreign nations, especially Babylon. Its fulfillment is proved by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who did not know the prophecy and had no design to show its fulfillment.

On the day of judgment and destruction Babylon's young men will fall in the streets and all its men of war will be cut off, killed and defeated. That death of the young men and destruction of the fighting force belongs within the day of the city's foretold destruction. The prophecy was not fulfilled completely when the Persians overthrew Babylon but pointed to the city's eventual destruction, fulfilled as Babylon gradually decayed and became desolate.

This slaughter is God's judgment on the sinful, proud city. Babylon is attacked and brought to ruin until it becomes heaps, desolate and uninhabited, without inhabitants, as seen in its buried ruins. The divine message of impending judgment also offered warning and mercy, which Babylon ignored.

The verse belongs to Jeremiah's lament and account of Babylon's destruction. It shows that pagan powers persecuted God's people and that God defended His people.

Fulfilled in Ancient Fall

The taking of Babylon, with the people who would accomplish it and the particular circumstances attending it, was exactly fulfilled by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as the instrument appointed by the Lord of hosts. After uninterrupted success Cyrus besieged Babylon when it alone held out in the East, and after nearly two years entered it by drying its river channel and marching through the brass river-gates left open during the annual festival night of feasting and revelry, bringing sudden destruction before they were aware. That fulfillment was a massacre during the Persian capture, when the drunken inhabitants were caught unprepared and unable to resist, falling suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure in the day of judgment on the city.

The advance was marked by two rumors, a first rumor when Cyrus stopped to divert the Gyndes River and a second rumor the following year with the city's destruction, placing the death of the young men and the cutting off of the fighting force within the day of the foretold destruction. Its fulfillment is proved by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who did not know the prophecy and had no design to show its fulfillment. It marks the fall of the head of gold, the Babylonian kingdom and empire as well as the city, before the silver Persian empire takes its place in succession.

The prophecy was not completely fulfilled when the Persians overthrew Babylon but in the city's gradual decay to utter desolation, becoming heaps without inhabitants as seen in its buried ruins. Therefore there will be no rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates followed by a sudden destruction. Babylon's defeat under the Medes and Persians shows that no wealth, power, or human scheme can save a nation whose principles lead to error and destruction.

Type of Final Babylon

Ancient Babylon in Jeremiah's day is a type of mystical, modern Babylon, the confused religious world. The prophecy of doom against Babylon predicts that her young men will fall in the streets and her warriors will be cut off on the day of judgment, and its fate is also prophesied in Revelation. The prophecy of ancient Babylon's final destruction portrays its young men falling in the streets and its warriors being cut off by God's judgment, while serving as a vivid portrayal of the destruction awaiting modern Babylon when God finally brings earthly affairs to an end.

There will be no rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates followed by a sudden destruction. The verse foretells the fall of the Babylonian empire as well as the city, a sudden fall coming while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. It has a double meaning and double fulfillment, pointing not only to ancient Babylon but to antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system that rules over the nations of the earth, whose fall alone is the subject of the prophecy in Revelation.

The fate of ancient Babylon in the fall of her young men and men of war is a type of the punishment of modern Babylon and all sinners in the day of the Lord, having a double fulfillment that is to be read with Revelation 18. As the daughters of Jerusalem are part of Jerusalem and the daughters of Rabbah are part of Rabbah, so the daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon itself and the daughters of mystic Babylon are part of great Babylon. Great Babylon therefore embraces all corrupt Christianity, which having rejected the announcement that the hour of His judgment is come is left by God's Spirit, with God's people called to come out of her before her destruction follows.

The verse belongs to prophecies of the final overthrow of nations and describes warriors falling in the streets. In that application it indicates that not all animals and birds are destroyed at Christ's second coming, but they survive and multiply among the earth's ruins during the thousand years.