Jeremiah 50:42, commentary and pictures

The verse describes a fully armed cavalry host raised up as God's instrument to judge Babylon, cruel and merciless, advancing in ordered battle array with a roar like the sea. It belongs to God's burden of warning and doom spoken against ancient Babylon long before its fall, offering mercy that was refused and healing that was not received. That word was fulfilled when the head of gold fell to the silver kingdom, as the Medes and Persians under Cyrus took the secure city on the night Belshazzar was weighed and found wanting. It is also a double prophecy in which ancient Babylon on the Euphrates stands as the type of great mystical Babylon, the apostate harlot-system whose fall is foretold in Revelation 18. Addressed to the daughter of Babylon, the wholly apostate power in contrast to the daughter of Zion, it vividly portrays the final destruction of modern spiritual Babylon and all sinners in the day of the Lord at the end of the world.

Army Against Babylon

Jeremiah 50:42 belongs to the message of impending judgment and offered mercy sent to ancient Babylon through Jeremiah, which Babylon ignored and therefore was not healed. It stands among the prophecies against foreign nations, especially Babylon.

The verse portrays the force raised against Babylon as heavily armed with bow and lance, fierce and terrifying, cruel and without mercy. They advance on horses in ordered battle array, with a roar like the sea, as the instrument of Babylon's judgment and destruction. That attacking army was the Medes and Persians, a fierce and well-equipped host whose advance was fulfilled in Cyrus's conquest of the city. A first rumor came when Cyrus delayed his advance, and another rumor preceded the destruction the following year as he marched against the city. The Persians entered through the undefended river gates, and the drunken inhabitants could not resist. In this application, the prophecy of ancient Babylon's destruction vividly portrays the final destruction of modern, spiritual Babylon at the end of the world.

Holding the bow and the lance means warfare fought with arrow and spear. That older manner of war stands apart from later gunpowder warfare with muskets and artillery, as in the Turkish encompassing of Constantinople where the musket had taken the place of the bow and breastplates of fire and jacinth and brimstone meant gunpowder, musketry and artillery.

The words translated shall hold contain the Hebrew verb chazaq in the same hiphil future form as layeth hold in Isaiah 56:2. It means literally to bind fast, to gird tight, to hold fast to anything, to cleave to, to adhere to firmly, to make firm and strong, to strengthen, to be strong upon anyone, and to show oneself strong and be courageous, with ideas of strength, power, and force prominent in it and its derivatives. Its use illustrates the decided and determined spirit and inflexibility of purpose with which men and women in the last days just prior to the second coming of Christ seize the long-neglected and downtrodden Sabbath truth with might and main and receive the promised blessing.

The address to the daughter of Babylon is a prophetic title for a wholly apostate power or people, here a wholly apostate church. This stands in contrast to the daughter of Zion, which represents God's church. Addressing the daughter of Babylon as Babylon proves that the daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon itself. So the daughters of mystic Babylon form a part of the great Babylon to be thrown down like a millstone, and great Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity.

The chapter presents Babylon as hostile to God's people and subject to God's judgment in defense of His people. The cruelty and mercilessness described illustrates how pagan powers persecuted those loyal to God.

Fall Foretold and Fulfilled

Jeremiah 50:42 belongs to the great burden of prophecy against Babylon concerning its destruction, doom and downfall, spoken by God many years before its fall. It foretells the fall of the head of gold, Babylon, before the silver Persian empire takes its place in succession. That fall was to be accomplished by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus in his conquest of the city, who are described as a fierce, well-equipped army advancing against Babylon.

The sudden fall of the Babylonian empire was fulfilled while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. On that night his kingdom was numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians. The fulfillment came as Cyrus marched against the city, with a first rumor when he delayed his advance and another rumor preceding the destruction the following year. The Persians entered through the city's undefended river gates, and the drunken inhabitants could not resist. Messengers cried on every quarter that Babylon was taken, and the people cried that Babylon was fallen.

That overthrow by the Persians did not complete the destruction, for the prophecy describes its ultimate fate. The city gradually fell into decay and became desolate, and the prophecy was literally fulfilled. Jeremiah's prophecies foretold the utter desolation of Babylon, that she should become heaps without inhabitant and sink under the evil to be brought upon her and not rise again. The roll of these prophecies in chapters 50 and 51 was brought to the Euphrates, where Seraiah read it, tied a stone to it, and cast it into the river as a sign of that sinking. That desolation is fulfilled in the buried cities by the Euphrates, left as mounds for more than twenty centuries, whose dug-up stones, bricks, sculptures, and household goods witness to the judgment. Its fulfillment is also shown by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who did not know the prophecy, so no rebuilding of old Babylon is to be expected.

The prophecy about Babylon stands as fulfilled in relation to Israel and Judah, not as a prediction of a future return to Canaan. The return involved a remnant from every tribe, though not everyone returned at once, and some continued to return over a period of years.

Type of Final Judgment

The prophecy is directed to both the ancient empire on the Euphrates and to mystical Babylon as its antitype, for the Babylon of Jeremiah's day serves as a type of the great mystical Babylon whose fate is foretold in Revelation. It is a double prophecy that makes a sudden transition from type to antitype, foretelling not only the fall of the literal city on the Euphrates and the sudden fall of its empire while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, but also the fall of antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth. For that reason it must be compared with Revelation 18, and no rebuilding of old Babylon is to be expected.

In that antitypical application the destruction of ancient Babylon vividly portrays the final destruction of modern spiritual Babylon at the end of the world and in the day of the Lord, when modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished. The overthrow also applies to the final overthrow of the nations. Taken alongside other scriptures in that setting of final overthrow, the prophecy indicates that not all beasts and birds will be destroyed at Christ's second coming, but that they will live and multiply among the earth's ruins during the thousand years.

The determined sense of the verb translated shall hold illustrates the decided spirit and inflexibility of purpose with which men and women in the last days just prior to the second coming of Christ seize the long-neglected and downtrodden Sabbath truth with might and main and receive the promised blessing. That verb is the Hebrew chazaq in the same hiphil future form as layeth hold in Isaiah 56:2, meaning literally to bind fast, to gird tight, to hold fast, to cleave to, to adhere firmly, to make firm and strong, to strengthen, to be strong upon anyone, and to show oneself strong and courageous, with ideas of strength, power, and force prominent in it and its derivatives. The fulfillment on Belshazzar's night, when his kingdom was numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians, with messengers crying on every quarter that Babylon was taken and the people crying that Babylon was fallen, proves that no might or scheme or power or wealth of man can save a city or nation that sows within herself error, confusion, destruction, and death.