Jeremiah 50:38, commentary and pictures

The verse pronounces God's judgment on Babylon that a drought would come upon her waters until they were dried up, because she was a land of carved images whose people were frenzied and mad upon their idols. Its waters were the literal waters of Babylon, the river Euphrates running through the city, whose turning aside made the city fordable so that Cyrus marched his troops up the dry channel on the night of feasting and entered through gates left open. That idolatry was a passionate devotion to images of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone, openly shown when Belshazzar and his guests praised their gods at his feast. Spoken by God many years before the fall as a warning that offered mercy and healing, it was fulfilled not in a rebuilding of old Babylon but in the sudden fall of the empire while its rulers felt secure, followed by gradual decay into desolate heaps without inhabitant. What it says about ancient Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians applies emphatically to modern mystical Babylon, the great apostate system of Revelation 18, whose final destruction portrays the doom of the confused religious world in the day of the Lord.

Waters Dried, Idols Judged

A drought is pronounced upon the waters of Babylon, and they shall be dried up, because it is the land of graven images and they are mad upon their idols. The waters are the literal waters of Babylon, the river Euphrates running through the city, whose drying accomplished its capture by Cyrus. Cyrus besieged Babylon nearly two years, then on the night of an annual festival of feasting and revelry stationed troops where the river entered and left the city, broke the embankment to the artificial lake west of the city and opened a trench around the city, turning the river aside until its channel through the city was almost entirely dry and fordable. His soldiers then marched up the dry channel into the heart of the city where the brass gates in the river walls on every crossing street had been left open, and in another account much of the Euphrates was diverted from its natural course so it could be crossed and the river route entered.

Babylon is described as a land filled with and devoted to carved images, whose people are frenzied, infatuated, crazed and mad upon idolatry, rooted in nature worship and confusion of the Creator with creation. That worship of images was shown at Belshazzar's feast, where he and his guests passionately praised idols of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. The verse belongs to the book's prophecies against foreign nations, especially Babylon, which uses striking symbols and figures of speech, and belongs to the lament against Babylon showing paganism as a persecuting division of the apostate system and testifying God's disfavor toward Babylon's religious system and his defense of his people in the judgment that brought the city and nation down. Its language about being mad upon idols describes the wicked world devoted to idols, in contrast with people wholly engaged in pleasing and obeying the Creator.

Prophecy Fulfilled in History

Jeremiah's message against Babylon was spoken by God many years before its fall as a burden of prophecy bringing warning of judgment and offering mercy and healing, and because Babylon ignored the warning and refused the healing its judgment and certain destruction followed. It did not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates followed by sudden destruction, but foretold the fall not of the city alone but of the empire, fulfilled suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. The prophecy gave as a sign that one rumor would be followed a year later by another and then by destruction, and after the first rumor Cyrus's work at the Gyndes delayed his advance until the following spring, when the second rumor and Babylon's destruction came in connection with his march toward Babylon.

Jeremiah foretold utter desolation, that Babylon should become heaps without inhabitant and sink under evil brought by God and not rise again. The roll was brought to the Euphrates and read there by Seraiah, who tied a stone to it and cast it into the river as a sign of that sinking. The prophecy does not mean Babylon was utterly destroyed when the Persians overthrew it, but points to the city's eventual destruction, fulfilled when the city fell to the Medes and Persians and then gradually fell into decay and became desolate. That fulfillment included the prediction of who should take Babylon and the particular circumstances attending it, for the waters of Babylon, the river Euphrates running through the city, were literally dried up to accomplish its capture by Cyrus.

Cyrus besieged Babylon nearly two years, then on the night of an annual festival of feasting and revelry stationed troops where the river entered and left the city, broke the embankment to the artificial lake west of the city and opened a trench around the city, turning the river aside until its channel through the city was almost entirely dry and fordable. His soldiers then marched up the dry channel into the heart of the city where the brass gates in the river walls on every crossing street had been left open. This drying of the waters came as judgment because the land was devoted to graven images and its people were infatuated with idols.

Babylon remained populous and splendid under the Medes and Persians and later the Greeks, and Apollonius still saw its palaces and images in the first century, so the desolation had not yet come in his day but the decline had begun. Later the city became largely deserted as its walls were quarried for rival Seleucia. Its fulfillment is now seen in the buried cities by the Euphrates, heaps of more than twenty centuries whose stones, sculptured slabs, bricks, pottery, sarcophagi, jewels and images are dug up and carried to London and Philadelphia, proved by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who did not know the prophecy and had no design to show its fulfillment. The prophecy belongs to what was spoken about Israel and Judah whose fulfillment is placed in the return from Babylon, as evidence that those prophecies have already been fulfilled and not as a prediction of a future return to Canaan.

Type of End-Time Babylon

The prophecy against Babylon speaks of both the ancient empire and mystical Babylon, for the Babylon of Jeremiah's day serves as a type of the great mystical Babylon of Revelation. It does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates followed by sudden destruction, but foretells the fall not of the city alone but of the empire, fulfilled suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. What is said about drought upon the waters of the land of graven images applied primarily and typically to ancient Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians, and applies emphatically to modern Babylon and all sinners punished in the day of the Lord as set forth in Revelation 18. The prophecy makes a sudden transition from type to antitype and has a double fulfillment, foretelling also the fall of antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth, which alone is the Babylon of Revelation.

Its waters dry up because it is a land of idols, and Babylon refused the healing God offered and fell under the judgments foretold. Its destruction also portrays the final destruction of modern Babylon, the confused religious world of the last days. The daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon itself, just as the daughters of Jerusalem form a part of Jerusalem and the daughters of Rabbah form a part of Rabbah, so mystic Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity, mother and daughters together. When she rejected the solemn announcement that the hour of his judgment is come, God left her forever by his Spirit and called his people to come out of her. Her destruction immediately follows when she is thrown down as a millstone cast into the mighty deep.

In its application to the final overthrow of nations, the earth's destruction does not mean every beast and bird dies at Christ's second coming. Animals remain and multiply among the ruins during the thousand years, and they may provide food for the wicked when they are resurrected. The verse shows the condition of the world just before the end, when mankind is mad upon its idols, with ears too dull to hear the truth and eyes blinded so it will not see. Ungodly men are so given to worldliness, sin and rebellion against God that no preaching, however clear, bold, consistent and long continued, will make them expect the coming of Christ and the destruction of the whole world by fire. As in Noah's day they cannot conceive destruction possible and count the warning folly, so they hurry on to doom until the trump convinces them the Lord has come and sudden destruction comes upon them as a thief in the night.