Jeremiah 51:20, commentary and pictures

God raised up the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as His battle axe and weapons of war to break nations in pieces and destroy kingdoms in the overthrow of Babylon. The word was spoken long beforehand against ancient Babylon when it had filled the cup of iniquity with pride, idolatry and persecution of God's people, and it came true on Belshazzar's night when his kingdom was numbered, weighed and divided and given to the Medes and Persians. That fall was not exhausted in the Persian capture, but was completed as the city decayed into tenantless desolation where no Arabian pitches tent and only wild beasts, owls and ruins remain. Ancient Babylon and its doom was a type of great mystical Babylon of the last days, so the prophecy has a double fulfillment in the sudden fall of the old empire while its lords felt secure and in the fall of the apostate harlot-system at the day of the Lord described in Revelation 18. Its fall stands as a warning to cities and people who forget and defy God, including modern cities such as New York and Chicago, that open defiance brings judgment, while God still uses His chosen instruments and tender appeals to break hard hearts.

Battle Axe and Setting

Thou art addressed to Babylon as God's own instrument of war, taken up to break nations in pieces and to destroy kingdoms, while the chapters around it also pronounce Babylon's own doom. The battle axe and weapons of war are the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, raised up under God's providence to capture Babylon and to accomplish its fall. That overthrow was the Lord's vengeance for His temple and a showing of His defense of His people.

The word came true on Belshazzar's night, when God had numbered his kingdom and finished it. He had weighed it in the balances and found it wanting because of idolatry, blasphemy, self-exaltation, and perversion of truth. He then divided it and gave it to the Medes and Persians as His battle axe and weapons of war, and with them He broke Babylon in pieces and destroyed the kingdom. Babylon was taken on every quarter and fell, proving God true and Babylon false. 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.

The verse belongs to the divine message sent through Jeremiah in chapters 50 and 51 to ancient Babylon when it had filled the cup of its iniquity. It announces impending judgment for sin and pride and coming desolation. At the same time it offered gracious warning and proffered mercy, which Babylon slighted and left unheeded.

Prophecy and Fulfillment

The verse foretells the destruction and judgment of Babylon, spoken as a great burden of prophecy many years before its fall. It predicts the downfall of the head of gold, the Babylonian kingdom, before the silver Persian empire takes its place in succession. These predictions are to be set against the testimony of heathen historians as evidence of fulfillment.

That destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon, but was ultimately fulfilled as the city gradually decayed and became desolate. Its later long-standing ruins testify to the truth of those detailed prophecies of doom. The prophecies declare Babylon shall be tenantless and desolate, never inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation. There the Arabian pitches not his tent and shepherds make not their folds, but wild beasts of the desert, houses full of doleful creatures, owls, lions, bitterns, dragons, pools of water, heaps, wilderness, dry land and desert, a burnt mountain, emptiness, wholly desolate and utterly destroyed remain, a land where no man dwells and every one that goes by it is astonished. Dread of evil spirits keeps Arabs from pitching tent or spending the night among the ruins, while travelers find dens of wild beasts, bones, bats and owls in the cavities, showing the prediction fulfilled in every detail.

The prophecy named the conqueror before his birth, and the city's long-standing ruins attest its fulfillment. The verse does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by sudden destruction. It belongs to a double prophecy referring both to the sudden fall of the ancient city and empire of Babylon while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, and to the fall of antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system that rules over the nations of the earth.

The chapter treats the fate of ancient Babylon and then by sudden transition from type to antitype introduces the day of the Lord in which modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished, so it has a double fulfillment and must be compared with Revelation 18. The Babylon of Jeremiah's day, whose doom and that of the kingdoms surrounding Israel is pronounced, was a type of the great mystical Babylon of the last days. In this verse can therefore be read the fate of Babylon the Great prophesied in the book of Revelation. The prophecy of ancient Babylon's final destruction portrays the destruction of modern Babylon when God brings earthly history to its close, and the ancient destruction is compared with the final destruction of Babylon.

The chapter is a lamentable testimony that paganism persecuted God's faithful people. That persecution is thus evidenced as one of paganism's marks as a division of Babylon.

Warning and Application

Jeremiah 51:20 belongs to a chapter that stands as a warning of judgment, for Babylon kept ignoring warnings until its doom was announced. Its fall remains an example of the consequences of wickedness, a lesson for cities and people that forget and defy God. Open defiance of God brings judgment, and that is the warning the fate of Babylon teaches.

The same warning reaches modern cities, including New York and Chicago, calling them and all who forget and defy God to take heed from Babylon's doom. It is meant to lead people to do right rather than continue in defiance.

God still uses his chosen instruments as weapons to accomplish his purposes. In this work the instrument is the heartfelt zeal, sympathy, prayer, and loving appeal of Christians, which the Holy Spirit uses to move sinners to think and feel and consider. Tender appeals in that Spirit can break hard hearts.