Jeremiah 50:43, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures the king of Babylon hearing the report of the army advancing against his city and collapsing into weakness, helplessness and terror, seized with anguish like the pangs of a woman in labor. It was spoken as part of God's warning of coming judgment upon ancient Babylon, offering mercy that she slighted, and foretelling that she would be made utterly desolate, sink never to rise, and give place to the silver empire. Its exact accomplishment came when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus took Babylon after a long siege, turning the Euphrates aside and entering by the dried channel through gates left open on a night of feasting, drunkenness and false security. That ancient fall was the fruit of her own sowing of error, idolatry and blasphemy against God's people, when her kingdom was numbered and finished, weighed and found wanting, and divided and given to the Medes and Persians beyond rescue by human power or wealth. Yet ancient Babylon stands as a type of the great mystical Babylon of the last days, so the prophecy makes a sudden transition from type to antitype and vividly portrays also the destruction of the apostate religious world when God closes earthly history and punishes modern Babylon and all sinners.

King's Anguish Portrayed

The king of Babylon hears the report of the forces coming against the city, and his hands grow feeble and powerless. He becomes helpless, fearful and terrified at the alarming news of the approaching conquerors. Anguish seizes him like the pains of a woman in labor as the doom, judgment and downfall of Babylon draw near. His condition is that of a persecuting power brought to helplessness before its judgment.

That report is the first warning connected with the advance toward Babylon. It belongs to the advance of Cyrus, and about a year afterward came another report and then the destruction of the city. What was first heard from afar was thus fulfilled when the city itself was taken.

The terror described is the terror of the night Babylon was taken. The king hears that Babylon is taken on every quarter, that the invading Persians have entered the city, and that he cannot stop them. His hands wax feeble and anguish takes hold of him as pangs take hold of a woman in travail.

Ancient Fall Foretold

The verse belongs to God's message to ancient Babylon warning of impending judgment while also offering mercy, which Babylon slighted, and it stands as part of the record of its approaching judgment. It belongs to the section of Jeremiah containing prophecies against foreign nations, especially Babylon. It forms among the leading parts of the great burden of prophecy against Babylon, uttered many years before its fall concerning the downfall of Babylon as the head of gold before the silver empire takes its place in succession.

It foretells the utter desolation of Babylon, that she would become heaps without inhabitant and sink under the evil brought upon her and not rise again. The roll containing this prophecy was brought to the Euphrates and read there, then tied to a stone and cast into the river as a sign of that sinking. That doom is now made visible in the buried mounds by the Euphrates and in excavated stones, bricks, sculptures, and relics.

It shows the sudden fall of the Babylonian empire, not merely the city of Babylon, coming upon the king while he and his lords felt secure. Its capture by the Persians did not bring its complete fulfillment, for the city was ultimately destroyed and its site became desolate. It does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates followed by a sudden destruction.

It predicts the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as an instrument of Providence, after uninterrupted success had left Babylon the only eastern city holding out against him. Its exact accomplishment came in the sixteenth year of Belshazzar after a siege of nearly two years against a scoffing, provisioned, walled city. This was effected by diversion of the Euphrates through a trench and canal to the lake west of the city on the night of an annual festival, by entry of soldiers through the dried river channel, and by free passage through the brass river gates left open. Thus sudden destruction came while the king and city were given to feasting, drunkenness, and revelry in apparent security.

Its fulfillment was the fruitage of Babylon's own sowing of error, confusion, idolatry, and blasphemy, when God had numbered her kingdom and finished it, weighed her in the balances and found her wanting, and divided her kingdom and given it to the Medes and Persians. Then no human might, scheme, power, or wealth could save her. Pagan Babylon persecuted God's people.

Type of Final Babylon

Babylon in Jeremiah's day serves as a type of the great, mystical Babylon of the last days. Its prophecy makes a sudden transition from type to antitype and has a double application and fulfillment. In its primary typical sense it points to the fall of the ancient city and empire, and in its emphatic sense to the fall of antitypical Babylon. That antitypical Babylon is the great apostate harlot-system that rules over the nations of the earth and alone is the subject of the prophecy in Revelation.

In that antitypical sense the prophecy vividly portrays the destruction of modern Babylon, the religious world, in the day when God brings earthly history to its close. Its emphatic fulfillment concerns the day of the Lord, when modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished. As the daughters of a city are included in the city, so the daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon itself. Therefore mystic Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity, including its daughters, and when she rejected the announcement that the hour of judgment is come God left her and calls His people to come out of her before her destruction. In its application to the final overthrow of the nations, not all beasts and birds are destroyed at Christ's second coming, but they continue to live and multiply amid the earth's ruins.