Jeremiah 50:35, commentary and pictures

The sword is the Lord's judgment falling upon the Chaldeans and upon the inhabitants of Babylon and upon her princes and her wise men. The warning belonged to the great burden against Babylon foretold long before it fell, when the head of gold would give place to the silver empire, and it was fulfilled when the forces of Cyrus and the Persian army entered and captured the city. The overthrow came suddenly upon Belshazzar and his lords in their security, when the defenders could not resist and the king was slain in the night of invasion, because Babylon had filled the cup of her iniquity and pride and had persecuted God's people. What befell literal Babylon is typical of the final punishment of mystical Babylon, for the prophecy is double and reaches beyond the ancient city and empire to the great apostate system that rules over the nations. When that mystic Babylon rejected the announcement that the hour of His judgment is come, God called His people to come out of her, and her destruction as a millstone cast into the deep immediately follows at the desolation of the earth at Christ's coming.

Judgment on Ancient Babylon

The sword announced is the Lord's judgment falling on the Chaldeans, on the inhabitants of Babylon, and on her princes and wise men, declaring God's opposition to Babylon and its rulers. It belongs to the great burden of prophecy against Babylon that foretold its downfall many years before it fell, marking the fall of the head of gold before the silver empire takes its place. The extended passage in verses 35-37 foretells sword and destruction on Babylon and the Chaldeans, including warriors, horses, and chariots, fulfilled when Cyrus's forces and the Persian army entered and captured the city and the kingdom fell.

The fall came as a sudden overthrow upon Belshazzar and his lords in the midst of their feeling of security, when the city's defenders could not resist and the king was killed during the night of invasion amid confusion and massacre. The prophecy gave a sign of one rumor followed a year later by another rumor and by destruction: the first rumor came as Cyrus marched toward Babylon and was delayed for a year after he diverted the Gyndes River, and the second rumor and Babylon's destruction followed the next spring. Babylon was punished for its sins and pride and repaid for its deeds through an attack by nations, having filled the cup of its iniquity and sown error, confusion, and death; pagan Babylon had persecuted God's people, and God's truth stood against her perverted principles.

The judgment message also carried warning and an offer of mercy, but the warning was ignored and Babylon was not healed. The destruction was the fruit of Belshazzar's own course as a weak, dissolute, riotous, idolatrous blasphemer who worshiped Babylon and her gods of gold and wood and stone and drank from the plundered vessels of the temple at Jerusalem. God's sentence was numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians, and before the night ended Babylon was taken on every quarter and the cry went out Babylon is fallen, is fallen, showing that no might or scheme or power or wealth of man could save a city or nation that sowed within herself the seeds of destruction.

The destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon but came about ultimately as the city gradually fell into decay and became utterly desolate, a literal fulfillment whose buried ruins stand as evidence. The sword upon the four named groups means the fall of the city and the fall of the empire together, not a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River and a later sudden destruction. The fulfillment shows that Jeremiah's prophecies concerning Israel and Judah were fulfilled, not promises of a future return to Canaan: after Babylon's conquest a remnant from every tribe returned, the return continuing over a period of years, while those who remained in Babylon blended into the local population.

Type of Modern Babylon

Babylon's ancient kingdom serves as a type of mystical Babylon, the great mystical Babylon described in Revelation.
The prophecy is double, reaching beyond the ancient city and empire to antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system which rules over the nations of the earth, while the prophecy of Revelation concerns that apostate Babylon alone.
The verse applied first and typically to ancient Babylon and its overthrow, and by sudden transition from type to antitype it applies with full force to modern Babylon in the day of the Lord just before the day of the Lord.
Babylon includes all that belongs to her, just as the daughters of Jerusalem form a part of Jerusalem and the daughters of Rabbah form a part of Rabbah and the daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon itself, so mystic Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity, mother and daughters together.

The fate of literal Babylon is typical of the final punishment of modern Babylon and all sinners, the ungodly and formal professors, and the prophecy portrays the final destruction of modern Babylon, the confused religious world, when God closes all earthly accounts.
In that application the verse belongs to the final overthrow of the nations and the picture of earth's desolation at Christ's second coming, which does not require that every beast and bird be destroyed.
When mystic Babylon rejected the announcement that the hour of his judgment is come, God left her by his Spirit and called his people to come out of her, and her destruction as thrown down as a millstone cast into the mighty deep immediately follows.