Jeremiah 51:30
The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken. The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
The verse portrays proud Babylon at its end with its warriors refusing to fight and shutting themselves in their fortresses, their power gone and their courage turned to weakness, while its homes are set on fire and its barred gates and defenses are shattered. It was fulfilled on the night Belshazzar feasted a thousand lords in drunken revelry, when the city fell to Cyrus and the Medes and Persians without resistance, Belshazzar was slain and Darius the Mede took the kingdom. Spoken as part of the great burden against Babylon long before the city reached its height under Nebuchadnezzar, it foretold its capture, desolation and uninhabited ruin, marking the fall of the head of gold before Persia in the succession of empires. Beyond ancient Babylon it describes the sudden fall of mystical Babylon, the great apostate system ruling the nations, whose emphatic overthrow comes in the day of the Lord in harmony with Revelation 18. That fall was the fruitage of Babylon's own sowing, for while its idolatrous king drank from the plundered vessels of the temple God numbered, weighed and divided his kingdom, leaving its unheeded doom as a warning to cities and peoples that forget and defy God.
Ancient Babylon's Collapse
The verse portrays the defenders of Babylon giving up the fight, refusing and forbearing to resist the Persian attack and remaining inside their strongholds after their strength and courage failed. They are left weak and helpless, while her dwelling places are burned and her bars, gates and defenses are broken. The proud city's end is thus presented as the collapse of both military resistance and fortified security, when its defenders fail and the city is destroyed. The image of becoming as women expresses their loss of courage and fighting power, when they became weak as women.
In the application to Daniel's lion symbol, this illustrates the decline of Babylon after the bold conquests of Nebuchadnezzar, as his successors grew progressively less courageous and aggressive, culminating in the weak Belshazzar. The verse was fulfilled on the night Babylon fell to Cyrus and the Persians and to the Medes on the night of Belshazzar's feast. In darkness and confusion a massacre took place in which the drunken revelers could make no resistance but remained in their holds feasting and rejoicing. They gave up resistance and stayed inside while engaging in a drunken feast, which made them rejoice and then sleep a perpetual sleep in death.
On that night Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine until the writing appeared on the palace wall. In that same night Belshazzar was slain and Darius the Mede took the kingdom. It was the literal fulfillment of the prophecy made before his birth that Cyrus would come, the loins of kings would be loosed before him, the two-leaved gates would be opened and the gates would not be shut.
The verse belongs to the great burden of prophecy against Babylon uttered many years before its fall, before the city reached its height under Nebuchadnezzar, foretelling its capture, destruction and utter desolation. Its fulfillment marks the fall of the head of gold, the Babylonian kingdom, before the Persian silver empire takes its place in succession onward to the end, and is proved by the testimony of history. That fulfillment is witnessed by Babylon's heap of buried ruins by the Euphrates, brought down to become heaps without inhabitants. The destruction foretold was not completed when the Persians overthrew the city, but pointed to Babylon's ultimate ruin, as the city gradually fell into decay and eventually became desolate, fulfilling the prophecy literally.
Type of Mystical Babylon
The prophecy stands against Babylon in both its ancient empire and as a type of mystical Babylon. It belongs to the series of prophecies beginning at Jeremiah 46 pronouncing doom upon Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Syria, and Babylon. What was pronounced upon literal Babylon in Jeremiah's day therefore shows the fate of Babylon the great prophesied in Revelation.
The ceasing to fight and remaining in strongholds describes not the fall of the city alone but the sudden fall of the whole Babylonian empire while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. Its fulfillment is double, reaching beyond ancient Babylon to antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth. Old Babylon on the Euphrates will not be rebuilt only to be suddenly destroyed again.
By sudden transition from type to antitype the same picture describes the day of the Lord in which modern Babylon shall be punished. That modern Babylon is the confused religious world, whose judgment is vividly portrayed here for the time when God brings earthly affairs to their close. The fulfillment is thus double, typically in ancient Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians and emphatically in the last days in harmony with Revelation 18, when all sinners shall be punished. The chapter sets forth Babylon's character and God's defense of His people, presenting her overthrow as God's judgment against the system that arose from Babylon and opposed Christ's religion.
Divine Judgment and Warning
Jeremiah 51:30 belongs to God's message through Jeremiah to ancient Babylon, a warning of coming judgment that also offered mercy, and Babylon ignored that message, so that God would have healed her but she was not healed. It stands as part of a lament over Babylon that exposes her cruel treatment of God's people and her persecuting power. In that use it establishes the charge that paganism turned its power against those loyal to God and against true worshipers.
The fall under Belshazzar was the fulfillment of God's predictions and the fruitage of Babylon's own sowing. While the weak, dissolute, idolatrous king feasted and drank from the plundered vessels of Jerusalem's temple to gods of gold and wood and stone, God numbered his kingdom and finished it, weighed him and found him wanting, and divided his kingdom to the Medes and Persians. That same night the city was taken, her mighty men forbore to fight and remained in their holds with their might failed. No might or scheme or power or wealth of man could save a city and nation that sowed within herself error, confusion, destruction, and death.
Babylon's unheeded doom serves as a warning and lesson for cities, places, and people that forget and defy God. Her defenders refused to fight and stayed in their strongholds because their strength had failed, becoming weak and helpless while her dwellings were burned and her defenses were broken. Her fall is presented as a judgment like the catastrophe that befell proud, wicked cities, and its fate warns places that defy God.