Jeremiah 51:1, commentary and pictures

The Lord raises up a destroying wind, force and power against Babylon and against those dwelling in its midst and allied with it in rising up against Him. The phrase for those rising up against Him conceals by Atbash cipher the name Chasdim, meaning the Chaldees. The judgment was foretold many years before Babylon fell and before it reached its height, because of its pride, violence, idolatry and God-defying persecution of His faithful worshipers, after warning and offered mercy when its iniquity was full and it refused to be healed. It was fulfilled when the Medes and Persians entered by the dried river-bed in the night of Belshazzar's revelry and slew him, and then ultimately in gradual decline to utter desolation without inhabitants, to rise no more. It is a double prophecy of ancient Babylon and, as type, of mystical Babylon the great apostate system ruling the nations, whose final destruction comes in the day of the Lord at the end of the world.

Words and Immediate Setting

The words rendered in the midst of them that rise up against me employ Atbash, a Hebrew letter-substitution cipher, which when decoded reads Chasdim, meaning Chaldees. The destroying wind comes from the Hebrew word roo-agh, which occurs 442 times in the Old Testament and is translated in sixteen different ways, including as wind 97 times. It is the source of the word spirit in every Old Testament instance except Job 26:4 and Proverbs 20:27, where the word is n'shah-mah. The verse means that the Lord raises a destroying wind, force, and power against Babylon and against those dwelling in its midst and allied with it in rising up against Him. It includes the fall of the city and the fall of the empire together and does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates followed by sudden destruction.

The verse belongs to the prophecies against foreign nations in chapters 46 to 51, especially Babylon. More specifically it belongs to Jeremiah 50-51 setting forth the final destruction of ancient Babylon as a great burden of prophecy. The prophecy was spoken many years before Babylon fell. It was given before the city reached its height.

The judgment came because of Babylon's pride, violence, and idolatry. It came because of corrupt principles and opposition to God, while God defended His people. It came because Babylon was a persecuting power opposed to God and His faithful worshipers. It was the fruit of awful, open, flaunting, God-defying wickedness. The message was one of judgment, warning, and offered mercy sent when iniquity was full. Babylon refused to be healed, ignored the warning, and was not healed, with sins mounted up to heaven inviting the foretold stroke of wrath, so the stroke fell.

Judgment Fulfilled on Babylon

The overthrow by the Persians did not complete the destruction, which came ultimately as the city gradually declined and became desolate in literal fulfillment of the prophecy. The destroying wind is raised against Babylon and those allied with it against God, including together the fall of the city and the fall of the empire in a sudden overthrow in the midst of security on the part of Belshazzar and his lords. It does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by sudden destruction.

The fulfillment came when the Persians watched in silence and darkness where the Euphrates entered and left the walls and saw the water sink in the river-bed while those inside remained unconscious in revel and riot without sounding alarm. They entered through the deep river-bed and seized the undefended river-gates, then raised a war-shout and spread alarm through the dark confused city. They overcame the drunken revelers who could make no resistance in terrible massacre, and burst into the palace and slew Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans on the scene of his impious revelry after the handwriting on the wall had too late warned him. So Darius the Median being about sixty-two years old took the kingdom.

The chapter stands among the prophecies foretelling Babylon's destruction and its circumstances in the account of Cyrus's conquest. That fall to the Medes and Persians fulfilled God's predictions against Babylon for its opposition to Him and its corrupt principles. No human power, wealth, or scheme can save a nation that sows error and destruction.

The judgment brings down the head of gold so the silver empire takes its place in succession onward to the end. It was spoken many years before Babylon fell as part of the great burden of prophecy against Babylon. Its fulfillment is proved by the dispassionate testimony of impartial historians who did not know the prophecy.

The certainty of sinking to rise no more was acted out by the stone tied to Jeremiah's prophecy and cast into the Euphrates. The judgment came as conquest by nations and lasting desolation for pride, violence, and idolatry, bringing the city to utter desolation to become heaps without inhabitants. She fell to rise no more after refusing to be healed when her sins mounted up to heaven. The detailed prophecy was given before the city reached its height, and its fulfillment is witnessed by the great ruins beside the Euphrates.

Type and Present Warning

Jeremiah 51:1 belongs to a prophecy against Babylon that speaks both of the ancient empire and, as its type, of mystical Babylon. It is a double prophecy referring not only to the ancient city and empire together in their sudden overthrow in the midst of security on the part of Belshazzar and his lords, but also to antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth, while the prophecy of Revelation refers to that apostate Babylon alone. It does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates followed by sudden destruction. The historical Babylon serves as the type of the great mystical Babylon, the ancient great world kingdom being the type of the confused modern religious world of the last days. By sudden transition from type to antitype the fate raised up to humble and destroy ancient Babylon applies emphatically to modern Babylon in the day of the Lord.

God raised the destroying wind of judgment against Babylon after she refused to be healed and her sins mounted up to heaven inviting the foretold stroke of wrath, so she fell to rise no more. That destruction is a vivid portrayal of the destruction to be visited upon modern Babylon in the day when God finally and forever closes up all earthly accounts in connection with the day of Christ and the end of the world, when modern Babylon with all sinners, the ungodly, and formal professors shall be punished in final destruction. The destruction of ancient Babylon is thus used to compare with the final destruction of Babylon. Babylon is shown as a persecuting power opposed to God and His faithful worshipers, with a lamentable record evidencing that paganism bears its marks.

The chapter is applied to the churches identified with Babylon, whose rejection of the Advent message refused the remedy that could heal their confusion and worldliness. The verse's image of a destroying wind is not explained separately in that application. Babylon's doom came after warnings went unheeded, and its lesson applies to places that forget and defy God, including modern cities. That warning of judgment should awaken a principle of doing right.

The destroying wind raised against Babylon was the fruit of awful, open, flaunting, God-defying wickedness. The destruction was a preliminary punishment given in mercy as warning. The same fate meets a modern proud and beautiful Babylon like San Francisco when it invites judgment by such wickedness, with the lesson extending to New York, Chicago, and every other place forgetting and defying God. In this application mountains in Scripture symbolize governments, so that the mountain of the Lord's house represents God's government, which nations will exalt above governments that have failed, seeking to establish peace and righteousness through religious and civil decree.