Jeremiah 51:17, commentary and pictures

Every man is made brutish and foolish by his own knowledge when he makes or trusts an idol, and every founder is confounded and put to shame, because his molten image is falsehood and fraud with no breath or life in it. No human skill can make an idol wise or alive, and in the judgment of Babylon, a land devoted to graven images, her idols are confounded and broken and cannot save the city. The verse belongs to Jeremiah's burden against Babylon, foretelling its overthrow and fall when it had filled the cup of its iniquity, setting forth its character and God's judgment upon its religious system in defense of His people. Its doom was not finished when the Persians overthrew it but was fulfilled as the city gradually decayed into heaps and pools of water, wholly desolate and never to be inhabited, with no Arabian pitching tent there and wild beasts lying there. By sudden transition from type to antitype the prophecy also foretells mystical, last-day Babylon the great of Revelation, whose final destruction in Revelation 18 in the day of the Lord is portrayed by the destruction of ancient Babylon.

Meaning and Judgment Setting

The word rendered breath in the verse is roo-agh, meaning the graven image has no breath in it. Every man is made brutish by his knowledge and every founder is confounded and put to shame and disgraced, because the molten image is falsehood, a fraud and a lie, with no breath or life or truth in it. Human wisdom is foolish when it makes or trusts idols, and the image-maker is put to shame because what he produces is false and lifeless. Human skill and knowledge cannot give life or truth to an idol or make it wise or alive. In the judgment of Babylon, whose land is devoted to graven images, the idols are confounded and broken, showing they cannot save the city from God's judgment.

The verse belongs to Jeremiah's prophecy and burden against Babylon foretelling its overthrow and fall. It was spoken many years before the fall, as part of God's message sent when Babylon had filled the cup of its iniquity. The chapter sets forth Babylon's character and God's defense of His people and God's judgment on Babylon for its religious system. It foretells the fall of Babylon, the head of gold, before the silver empire takes its place.

The verse belongs to a divine announcement of impending judgment joined with gracious warning and proffered mercy. That announcement came after Babylon refused to be healed and her sins mounted up to heaven, inviting the foretold stroke of wrath, when God's judgments were visited upon her and she fell to rise no more. That warning was slighted and went unheeded until its doom. Ancient Babylon would be humbled by the Medes and Persians.

Fulfillment, Type, and Warning

The sudden fall of the ancient city and empire came in the midst of the security of Belshazzar and his lords, and it will not be fulfilled by a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by sudden destruction. The destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew the city but was fulfilled ultimately as the city gradually fell into decay and became desolate. That foretold utter desolation meant it became tenantless, empty and wholly desolate, never to be inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation, with no Arabian pitching tent there and no shepherds making folds there. It became heaps, pools of water, a wilderness, a dry land and a desert, a burnt mountain, a possession for the bittern and dwelling-place for dragons where wild beasts of the desert lie and houses are full of doleful creatures, where every one that goes by is astonished and where no man dwells, its name and remnant cut off.

The fulfillment of Babylon's doom and utter desolation is witnessed by the city's ruins and by the ruins beside the Euphrates. It is shown by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who did not know the prophecy and had no design to show its fulfillment. It is attested literally by all who have visited the spot, where the Arabian does not pitch tent there from dread of evil spirits and the shepherds do not make their folds there, and where Arabs avoid pitching tents from dread of evil spirits.

The chapter is a prophecy against Babylon concerning both the ancient empire and Babylon as a type of mystical, antitypical Babylon. It belongs with the prophecies from Jeremiah 46 onward dealing with the kingdoms surrounding Israel and pronouncing their doom, and the Babylon of Jeremiah's day was a type of the great, mystical Babylon in our day. By sudden transition from type to antitype it foretells the great apostate harlot-system which rules over the nations of the earth, the confused last-day religious world called modern Babylon and Babylon the great prophesied in Revelation, which alone is the Babylon of Revelation. That ancient destruction after she refused to be healed is a vivid portrayal of the destruction to be visited upon modern Babylon, whose final destruction is compared with the destruction of ancient Babylon and portrayed by that ancient destruction. It has its emphatic fulfillment in Revelation 18 in the day of the Lord when modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished and God shall finally and forever close up all earthly accounts in connection with the day of Christ and the end of the world.

Jeremiah's warning about Babylon went unheeded until its doom, and that warning is a lesson from Babylon's fate that applies to cities and people who forget and defy God. Human wisdom cannot give life or truth to idols, for the idol-maker is confounded because a molten image is false and has no breath, and in that warning to cities that forget and defy God the fate of Babylon stands as instruction.