Jeremiah 50:7
All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers. All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.
The verse shows the enemies of God's people devouring them and excusing their cruelty by claiming they did no wrong because Israel had sinned against the Lord, the dwelling place of justice and the hope of their fathers. It stands as part of Jeremiah's prophecy against Babylon foretelling her destruction, fall, and utter desolation as heaps without inhabitants that would sink and never rise again. That word was exactly accomplished when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus came suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure in feasting and revelry, though the city only became fully desolate later as it gradually declined. Ancient Babylon and its doom also serve as a type of mystical Babylon and its fate, for the prophecy is double, passing suddenly from the humbling of literal Babylon to the punishment of antitypical Babylon, the great apostate system ruling the nations, in the day of the Lord at the close of this dispensation. The final destruction of ancient Babylon thus portrays the judgment of modern Babylon, the confused corrupt Christian world with her daughters, which connects to the second angel's message calling God's people to come out of her before her destruction immediately follows.
Judgment Against Ancient Babylon
Jeremiah 50:7 is part of Jeremiah's prophecy against Babylon foretelling its destruction and fall. That prophecy foretells utter desolation, that Babylon would become heaps and be without inhabitants, and that Babylon would sink and not rise again. It belongs to the message of judgment, warning, and offered mercy sent to Babylon through Jeremiah, which Babylon ignored and by which it was not healed. The verse describes how adversaries devoured God's people and excused their persecution by claiming they did not offend because the people had sinned against the Lord. That Lord is the dwelling place of justice and the hope of their ancestors, and the passage stands as testimony against the Babylonian religious system whose hostility and persecution God opposes in defense of His people.
God's predictions concerning the taking of Babylon were exactly accomplished. The Medes and Persians under Cyrus were the people appointed to accomplish it, with the particular circumstances foretold. Destruction came suddenly upon Babylon while unaware, while the king and the whole city gave themselves to feasting, drunkenness, and revelry in apparent security, and while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. The fall foretold was not only the fall of the city but the fall of the empire. As Cyrus marched toward Babylon an initial rumor came when he delayed his advance, another came the following year, and Babylon was destroyed.
The prophecy did not mean that Babylon would be utterly destroyed when the Persians overthrew it. Its complete destruction came later, as the city gradually declined and became desolate. The verse belongs to a prophecy concerning Israel and Judah that was fulfilled in the past. It is not a prediction of a future return to Canaan.
Type of End-Time Babylon
Jeremiah 50:7 belongs to a prophecy against Babylon whose ancient city and its doom serve as a type of mystical Babylon and its fate. The prophecy is double, making a sudden transition from type to antitype with both a typical and an antitypical fulfillment. Its primary typical fulfillment concerned literal Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians, foretelling not only the fall of the city but the fall of the empire, coming suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. Its emphatic antitypical fulfillment concerns antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth, punished in the day of the Lord at the close of this dispensation in the final punishment of the ungodly and formal professors. It does not mean that old Babylon on the Euphrates River will be rebuilt and then suddenly destroyed, while the prophecy in Revelation applies to apostate Babylon alone.
The prophecy of ancient Babylon's final destruction portrays the judgment of modern Babylon, the confused religious world, at the end of the world. Great Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity, since the daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon just as the daughters of Jerusalem form a part of Jerusalem and the daughters of Rabbah form a part of Rabbah. The daughters of mystic Babylon will be thrown down as a millstone is cast into the sea. Therefore the second angel's message is addressed to the present generation, and when Babylon rejected the solemn announcement that the hour of judgment is come, God left her forever by His Spirit and called His people to come out of her, with her destruction immediately following. 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 among the earth's ruins.