Jeremiah 51:12, commentary and pictures

The verse calls for the signal of attack to be raised against Babylon, the guard to be strengthened, sentries to be posted and ambushes to be laid, because the Lord's purpose against its inhabitants is both planned and carried out. It is spoken to Babylon itself to multiply its defenses and watchfulness, yet no preparation can turn aside what God has devised and spoken against her pride, sin and persecution of His faithful people. The warning was given when her iniquity was full, offering gracious mercy and healing, but she slighted and refused it until her sins reached to heaven. It was fulfilled in the night proud Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, when the river-gates were left undefended, the Persians rose from the dry river-bed, and Belshazzar was slain in his revelry while Darius the Median took the kingdom. The same prophecy stands as a type of the fall of mystical Babylon in the last days, portraying the sudden final punishment of the apostate system ruling over peoples and nations and warning every city, church and people that forgets God that no human strength can save them.

Summons to Besiege Babylon

The command is to raise a signal upon Babylon's walls, make the watch strong, set up watchmen, and prepare ambushes, framing the announced siege and coming attack as certain because the Lord has both devised and carried out what He announced against Babylon. The verse belongs to the prophecy of Babylon's fall as a kingdom, where the reason given for preparing the siege is that the Lord has planned and done what He declared against its inhabitants.

Babylon is thus ordered to raise its defenses and watchfulness, to strengthen its watch and post its guards, yet those preparations cannot prevent what the Lord has planned, devised, spoken, and carried out against the city. Its defenses may be strengthened, but they cannot avert the destruction He has purposed, and the surrounding verses show that this destruction leaves the city desolate as punishment for its sin and pride. No human strength, scheme, or wealth can save a city or nation that has sown error and destruction, and Jeremiah 51 stands as a warning that people and places that forget and defy God face the consequences of their wickedness. That warning is applied to churches that rejected the Advent message, which was presented as a means of healing their doctrinal confusion and love of the world, and whose refusal was followed by their fall, while the same chapter forms part of the comparison between the final destruction and the fall of ancient Babylon.

The message was sent through Jeremiah to ancient Babylon when it had filled the cup of its iniquity, declaring impending judgment while giving gracious warning and offering mercy. Babylon slighted that message and left it unheeded, refusing to heed the warnings before its doom came as foretold. Its lesson is applied to cities and people who forget and defy God, that warnings should lead to a lasting principle of doing right and not merely to a passing impulse to improve.

The destruction is punishment for Babylon's sin, pride, and character as a system that persecuted those who remained faithful to God, requiring God's defense of His people. It came after she refused to be healed, when her sins had mounted up to heaven inviting the foretold stroke of wrath, so that God's judgments were visited upon her and she fell to rise no more.

The watchmen and liers in wait are the Persian soldiers in ambush on the night of the fall, stationed in silence and darkness at the two points where the Euphrates entered and left the walls. There they anxiously watched the water sink in the river-bed and listened for any alarm from within, knowing that if the river-walls were manned and the river-gates locked they would be trapped and destroyed in the river-bed before they could escape. Ancient Babylon dwelt upon many waters, a feature also shared by the Babylon of Revelation.

Foretold Fall Fulfilled

Jeremiah 51:12 belongs to God's great burden of prophecy against Babylon, spoken many years before its fall, even before the city reached its height under Nebuchadnezzar. It predicts the downfall of Babylon as the head of gold and the humbling of proud ancient Babylon by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, to be replaced by the Persian kingdom, and the fall of Babylon to Cyrus and the Medes and Persians shows that the Lord carried out what He had declared against the city. Literally it concerns that humbling of ancient Babylon, yet by sudden transition from type to antitype it also applies unmistakably to the last days before the day of the Lord, when modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished, and what the Lord devised and spoke will be both devised and done emphatically in the final punishment of the ungodly and of formal professors, as shown by comparing Jeremiah 50 and 51 with Revelation 18. It does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates followed by a sudden destruction; it foretells the sudden fall of both the city and the empire while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure.

The fall came in the night Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians under Belshazzar, when no alarm was given but only confused noise of revel while the townsmen were unconscious of danger. Shadowy Persian columns emerged from the dry river-bed, seized the undefended river-gates, raised the war-shout, spread the alarm, and massacred the drunken revelers who could make no resistance. Bursting into the palace they slew Belshazzar amid his impious revelry while he was paralyzed by the handwriting on the wall, and Darius the Median, being about sixty-two years old, took the kingdom. That overthrow under Belshazzar fulfills God's predictions and shows that Babylon's defenses cannot prevent the judgment God planned and spoke, for the Lord both devised and carried out His word against the city, and no human strength, scheme, or wealth can save a city or nation that has sown error and destruction.

Its exact fulfillment is shown in impartial history, and the ruins by the Euphrates stand as lasting evidence that the detailed prophecy of doom came true. The prophecy declares utter desolation, that Babylon would become heaps and be left without inhabitants, and after she refused to be healed her sins mounted to heaven inviting wrath so that judgments were visited upon her and she fell to rise no more. The destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon; it was fulfilled later as the city gradually fell into decay and became utterly desolate.

Type and Final Warning

The prophecy concerns literal Babylon and the ancient empire, and at the same time it stands as a type of mystical Babylon, the great apostate harlot system that rules over the nations of the earth and in a peculiar way the religious world of the last days. The Babylon of Jeremiah's day was a type of the great mystical Babylon of the last days, so its overthrow shows the fate of Babylon the great prophesied in Revelation. It does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates followed by a sudden destruction, but the sudden fall of both the city and the empire while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. The prophecy in Revelation refers to apostate Babylon alone.

It has a double application and double fulfillment by sudden transition from type to antitype. Literally it is the humbling of proud ancient Babylon by the Medes and Persians, and unmistakably it is the last days before the day of the Lord when modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished. What the Lord devised and spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon will be both devised and done emphatically in the final punishment of the ungodly and of formal professors, as comparing Jeremiah 50 and 51 with Revelation 18 shows. The prophecies of Jeremiah 50 and 51 setting forth that ancient destruction are a vivid portrayal of the destruction to be visited upon modern Babylon in the day when God shall finally and forever close up all earthly accounts. The strengthening of Babylon's defenses and watch cannot avert what the Lord has planned and carried out, and that comparison forms part of the comparison between the final destruction and the fall of ancient Babylon.

Babylon dwelling upon many waters is a symbol of peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. It represents organized opposition to God's kingdom and claims rule over the world. Babylon's fall under Belshazzar fulfills God's predictions, and no human strength, scheme, or wealth can save a city or nation that has sown error and destruction. Jeremiah 51 is a warning that people and places that forget and defy God face the consequences of their wickedness, and Babylon's fate is a lesson for other cities to heed rather than dismiss. That lesson is applied to modern cities that defy God, compared with Babylon and Tyre, and warnings should lead to a lasting principle of doing right and not merely a passing impulse to improve.

The chapter's warning about Babylon is applied to churches that rejected the Advent message. That message was presented as a means of healing their doctrinal confusion and love of the world, and their refusal was followed by their fall. What Jehovah did to bring healing to Babylon of long ago is blessed truth for today. The announcement of Babylon's end supports the hope that the threefold message of Revelation 14:6-12 will bring deliverance from Babylon to everyone who accepts it.