Jeremiah 51:23
I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers. I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers.
The verse pronounces God's doom upon Babylon, breaking the nation across every rank and occupation, from shepherds with their flocks to farmers with their oxen to captains and rulers with those under them, until the city lies in ruin. It belongs to the prophecies against the kingdoms surrounding Israel, declaring judgment when Babylon had filled the cup of its iniquity by cruelly persecuting God's people and refusing offered mercy. That breaking was to come through Cyrus with the Medes and Persians as the Lord's vengeance for His temple and people, foretold long before as the fall of the head of gold while Belshazzar felt secure. The word was literally fulfilled, not by instant annihilation at Persia's overthrow, but by gradual decay into desolation whose ruins beside the Euphrates still witness to its doom. The prophecy is double, passing from proud literal Babylon to antitypical Babylon, the great apostate system, whose final destruction at the end of the world in the day of the Lord is foretold in Revelation. Its overthrow was the fruit of its own sowing that no human power or wealth could prevent, and it stands as warning to cities that forget and defy God.
Babylon's Judgment Described
Jeremiah 51:23 stands in the prophecies against foreign nations, especially Babylon, as part of the doom pronounced from Jeremiah 46 onward upon the kingdoms surrounding Israel. It belongs to the prophecy concerning Babylon and its doom, reckoned among the powers appointed to fall. Beyond literal Babylon it reaches to the days of restoration under Christ, for the Babylon of Jeremiah's day was a type of the great mystical Babylon of the last days whose fate is foretold in Revelation.
The verse describes the breaking of Babylon across every rank and occupation, shepherds with their flocks, husbandmen with their yoke of oxen, and captains with rulers. The destruction strikes those who lead, work, and rule together with those under their care or command. So foretold, the judgment would bring the city to ruin and desolation.
That breaking was to come through the conquest by Cyrus, with the Medes and Persians called to destroy the city as the Lord's vengeance for His temple and in defense of His people. Uttered many years before the fall, it predicted the downfall of Babylon as the head of gold before the silver empire should take its place. It included the sudden fall of the empire while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. Its fulfillment is confirmed by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who knew nothing of the prophecy and had no design to show its fulfillment.
The verse is part of the divine message sent through Jeremiah to ancient Babylon when it had filled the cup of its iniquity. That same chapter testifies that Babylon had cruelly treated and persecuted God's people, including prominent people and rulers. The message declared impending judgment while giving gracious warning and offering mercy. Slighted and unheeded and refused, it left the verdict that Babylon would not be healed.
Fulfillment and Final Warning
The prophecy was literally fulfilled, though it did not require Babylon to have been utterly destroyed when the Persians overthrew it, but pointed to the city's eventual destruction through gradual decay into desolation. The great ruins beside the Euphrates stand as witness to the truth of that foretold doom and that its particulars were fulfilled. The desolation was complete and tenantless, for Babylon would never be inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation, its name and remnant cut off. It was made heaps, pools of water and a possession for the bittern, a burnt mountain, empty and wholly desolate, a wilderness and dry land and desert. It became a dwelling-place for dragons and doleful creatures where wild beasts of the desert lie, where no man dwells and every passerby is astonished.
Arabs will not pitch tent there and cannot be induced to spend the night among the ruins from dread of evil spirits, and shepherds make no folds there. Lions, dens of wild beasts, bones of sheep, bats and owls fill the cavities, houses and palaces. The prophecy is double, making a sudden transition from type to antitype with a double fulfillment. Primarily it concerns the humbling of proud literal Babylon, including not merely the fall of the city but the sudden fall of the empire while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, but emphatically it also applies to antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system which rules over the nations of the earth.
The prophecy in Revelation concerns Babylon the apostate alone, while Jeremiah concerns both the ancient city and empire and the antitype, so there will be no rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by a sudden destruction. As a type, ancient Babylon's final destruction portrays the destruction of modern, mystical Babylon at the end of the world. That destruction comes in the day of the Lord when modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished, reaching beyond literal Babylon to the days of restoration under Christ. The verse belongs to the doom pronounced from Jeremiah 46 onward upon the kingdoms surrounding Israel, specifically upon Babylon, whose fate is prophesied in the book of Revelation and compared with the final destruction of Babylon.
The overthrow was the fruitage of Babylon's own sowing of error, confusion, destruction and death. It was fulfilled when Belshazzar's kingdom was numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians, with Babylon taken on every quarter and fallen. No human might or scheme or power or wealth could prevent it. The breaking extends across every rank and occupation, with shepherds and their flocks, farmers and their yoke of oxen, captains and rulers all broken in pieces. The verse thus serves as a warning about the judgment that came upon Babylon and a lesson for cities that forget and defy God, including New York and Chicago.
That warning is applied to San Francisco, portraying its catastrophe through open wickedness as a judgment invited by defiance of God.