Jeremiah 50:37, commentary and pictures

The sword falls upon Babylon's horses and chariots, its mingled foreign troops and its stored wealth, so that its military strength is broken, its defenders are left helpless, and its treasures are plundered. It was given long beforehand as God's burden of judgment when Babylon had filled the cup of its iniquity, and after the warning was refused it was fulfilled when the Medo-Persian army under Cyrus entered and took the secure city with little resistance. The overthrow was completed not at once but in her gradual decay into desolate heaps without inhabitants. Ancient Babylon stands as the type of great mystical Babylon, so the prophecy passes with double fulfillment from type to antitype in the day of the Lord. Her final destruction portrays God's closing punishment of modern Babylon, the confused apostate religious world with its daughters, which refused healing and the announcement that the hour of His judgment is come, and therefore is thrown down like a millstone never to rise again.

Fall of Ancient Babylon

A sword is pronounced upon Babylon's horses and chariots and upon all the mingled foreign and allied troops in her midst, so that her military strength faces destruction and her defenders become helpless as women. A sword is likewise pronounced upon her treasures, so that her wealth faces ruin and plundering. The overthrow and desolation of the city therefore strike both its armed power and its riches.

The declaration belongs to the prophecy concerning Babylon and its doom. It was sent as God's judgment warning and great burden against Babylon when she had filled the cup of her iniquity, and the warning was ignored so that the city was not healed. It was spoken many years before the fall, foretelling the downfall of Babylon as the head of gold before the Persian silver empire took its place in succession.

It was fulfilled in the sudden fall of ancient Babylon with its empire, when Cyrus's Medo-Persian army entered and took the city. The Medes and Persians captured Babylon while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, meeting little resistance and carrying fire and sword through the city. Preceding signs were given as two rumors a year apart, the first when Cyrus delayed his march and the second just before the fall.

The destruction was not completed at the Persian overthrow but came ultimately as the city gradually decayed into desolate heaps without inhabitants, seen in its buried ruins, fulfilling the prophecy literally. The prophecy stands already fulfilled and is not a prediction of a future return of Israel and Judah to Canaan, since a remnant from every tribe returned after Cyrus's decree while others remained in Babylon and were absorbed into the local population. The mention of horses is not a statement that horses will be abolished. Its setting of ruin does not mean that every beast and bird is destroyed at Christ's second coming, since creatures may survive and multiply amid the desolation during the thousand years before the resurrection of the wicked.

Type of End-Time Babylon

Babylon in Jeremiah's time serves as a type of the great, mystical Babylon whose fate is prophesied in Revelation, so that the doom pronounced upon Babylon has a double fulfillment from type to antitype. The prophecy concerns the sudden fall of ancient Babylon, including its empire, while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, and it also applies to antitypical Babylon, the apostate system that rules over the nations. Its primary fulfillment concerned literal Babylon, but by an easy transition it introduces the day of the Lord in which modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished, and it must be compared with Revelation 18 for its emphatic last-days fulfillment.

The final destruction of ancient Babylon portrays the destruction of modern Babylon — the confused religious world — when God brings earthly affairs to a close. The sword falls upon Babylon's horses, chariots, allied peoples, and treasures, leaving them vulnerable and plundered. The chapter stands as Jeremiah's testimony to paganism's persecution of God's people. Babylon refused the healing God offered, so judgment fell upon her and she did not rise again.

The chapter shows that the daughters of Babylon are a part of Babylon itself, just as the daughters of Jerusalem are a part of Jerusalem and the daughters of Rabbah are a part of Rabbah. Therefore great mystic Babylon embraces its daughters and includes all corrupt Christianity. After she rejected the announcement that the hour of his judgment is come, God left her and called His people to come out of her, and her destruction as thrown down like a millstone into the mighty deep immediately follows.