Jeremiah 50:8, commentary and pictures

The verse commands God's people to leave Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans before its judgments fall, taking the lead in departing decisively like he-goats going before the flock to escape its iniquity and return to seek Zion. It belongs to a prophecy against Babylon foretelling its destruction and utter desolation in defense of God's people, fulfilled when Cyrus leading the Medes and Persians took the city by drying the Euphrates and entering its open gates on the night of Belshazzar's feast when the kingdom was numbered and finished. That judgment is double, holding as type and antitype for both the fall of the ancient city and empire and the fall of mystical Babylon the great apostate system ruling the nations. The call to remove out of Babylon therefore applies emphatically in the last days just before the day of the Lord, warning God's people to separate from corrupt Christianity mother and daughters together, to leave its sins and accept God's righteousness before its final destruction.

Ancient Babylon's Fall Foretold

Jeremiah 50:8 belongs to a prophecy against Babylon that foretells its destruction and utter desolation. In its setting the chapter declares God's judgment on Babylon and His defense of His people, with the verse standing as part of that call to come out from Babylon. It was presented as a prediction of Babylon's downfall before the city fell to the Persian empire. The surrounding prophecy describes Babylon's fallen condition and certain destruction, and its foretold events were fulfilled when Cyrus advanced against the city, first causing alarm and then returning the following spring before Babylon's destruction.

The predictions tell who would take Babylon and the particular circumstances of its capture. They were exactly fulfilled when Cyrus leading the Medes and Persians took the city. Cyrus had been called by name and appointed to the work by the Lord over two hundred and sixty years before though he did not know Him. He besieged Babylon for nearly two years, dried the channel of the Euphrates through the city, and entered through the brass river gates left open on the night of feasting and revelry when destruction came suddenly upon king and city unawares. They were fulfilled in the night of Belshazzar's feast, when God had numbered his kingdom and finished it, weighed him in the balances and found him wanting, and divided his kingdom and given it to the Medes and Persians, so Babylon was taken on every quarter and Babylon is fallen, is fallen. This proved God true against Babylon's perverted principles and proved that no might or scheme or power or wealth of man can save a city or nation that sows within herself the seeds of error, confusion, destruction and death.

That destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon. The prophecy was ultimately fulfilled as the city gradually declined and became desolate. The verse was also fulfilled in the return from Babylon, when people from all the tribes left. Though not all returned, a remnant of each tribe came back over a period of years, while those who stayed in Babylon were absorbed into the local population.

Meaning of Departure Call

The call is for God's people to remove out of the midst of Babylon and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans. They are to take the lead in departing, going ahead as the he goats go before the flocks and lead them. The movement is to be decisive, like leading goats guiding a flock. It is part of God's declared judgment on Babylon and His defense of His people.

In its historical setting the command was to return from captivity to their homeland and seek Zion. The call comes before Babylon faces God's judgments. In its application it leads willing individuals out of a doomed society so that they may escape its judgment and iniquity.

Those who stayed in Babylon for possessions or business ignored God's opened way. In remaining they risked sharing the city's ruin.

Type of Modern Babylon

The prophecy against Babylon concerns both the ancient empire and, as its type, mystical Babylon, so the judgment pronounced on Babylon in Jeremiah's day serves also as a type of the fate of mystical Babylon. It is double, embracing the fall of the ancient city and empire and the fall of antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system which rules over the nations of the earth, whereas the prophecy of Revelation concerns Babylon the apostate alone. It includes both the fall of the city and the fall of the empire, coming suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, and it does not predict a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by a sudden destruction. The prophecy of the fate of ancient Babylon has this double fulfillment as type and antitype, with the command to remove out of Babylon applying emphatically to separation from modern Babylon in the last days just before the day of the Lord, when modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished.

Great mystic Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity, mother and daughters together, for the daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon itself. When she rejected the solemn announcement, The hour of his judgment is come, God left her forever by His Spirit and called on His people to come out of her, and her destruction immediately follows. The command was God's call to leave ancient Babylon before its destruction as the Medes and Persians were about to destroy it, and it is applied to modern Babylon as a warning to come out of its sins before the final destruction. People are therefore urged to leave its sins and accept God's righteousness before the final destruction.

Jeremiah 50 is connected with the final overthrow of the nations and the desolation of the earth at Christ's second coming. It shows that not all beasts and birds will be destroyed at that time. They will live and multiply among the ruins during the thousand years before the resurrection of the wicked.