Jeremiah 51:36, commentary and pictures

The Lord promises to take up the cause of His wronged people and avenge them by bringing the kingdom of Babylon to an end, causing its waters to fail and leaving it in destruction and desolation. Its sea was the great lake and reservoir within the city fed by the Euphrates and its branching canals, so called because water abounded there. That drying was fulfilled literally when Cyrus turned the Euphrates out of its course into trenches and an artificial lake, so that Persian soldiers marched through the empty riverbed in darkness, seized the undefended river-gates, and took the walled city in one night while its king and lords reveled in false security. In that night Belshazzar was slain and Darius the Median took the kingdom, the head of gold falling before the silver empire. The overthrow came as the fruit of Babylon's pride, idolatry and self-exaltation after warning was given and mercy offered but refused, its kingdom numbered, weighed and found wanting, and divided to the Medes and Persians. The ancient empire serves as a type of great mystical Babylon, so the prophecy applies emphatically and finally to the apostate system ruling the nations and its desolation in the final judgments at the close of the world as portrayed in Revelation 18, with its gradual decay into permanent ruin standing as witness to its truth.

Wording and Ancient Fulfillment

Therefore thus saith the LORD belongs to Jeremiah's burden and prophecy against ancient Babylon, uttered many years before its fall as a prediction of its downfall. It foretold the sudden fall not only of the city of Babylon but of its empire, which fell while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. Its fulfillment is proved by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians as the fall of the head of gold before the silver empire takes its place in succession.

The sea of Babylon was a considerable lake or reservoir in the interior of the city, fed by the Euphrates together with several branching rivers or canals. Those branching waters were works of art still bearing the Euphrates name in a general sense. In the East such large receptacles of water are called a sea, and Babylon was built where water so abounded that the place had been called the sea.

To dry up her sea and make her springs dry was fulfilled literally when Cyrus marched up above the city and had his soldiers dig channels and trenches around the walls. He diverted the Euphrates out of its natural course into a trench and an artificial lake, drawing off a great portion of its water so its natural channel could be forded for the attack. The Euphrates rolled through the middle of the city, lined on each bank with walls and gated streets leading down to the water, and abundantly supplied a city protected by a wall 350 feet high and 87 feet thick at the base. After besieging Babylon for years without success, the Medes and Persians turned the waters out of their natural channel, and the water sank where it entered and left the walls, leaving the empty central channel as a dry road.

Persian soldiers marched through the empty river-bed in darkness from both ends, seized the undefended river-gates, and entered by every gate. They took the city at one end while the inhabitants reveled unaware. Babylon trusted in its gigantic walls and twenty years of provisions and gave itself from prince to meanest subject to debauchery, riot and drunkenness in false security, leaving the river gates open. So the impregnable capital fell to the Persian Empire in one night, and no might or scheme or power or wealth of man could save her.

Taking vengeance meant overthrowing the city to the Medes and Persians. In that night Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was slain and Darius the Median, about sixty-two years old, took the kingdom. That overthrow did not complete the destruction described, for the prophecy describes its ultimate destruction and permanent ruin. It was fulfilled as the city gradually decayed and became desolate over many centuries, with her waters failing and leaving Babylon desolate, and its ruins stand as a witness to the truth of the prophecy.

God's Vindication in Judgment

The Lord promises to plead the cause of Judah and Jerusalem and of all those wronged and harmed by Babylon, to defend them and take up their cause and take vengeance for them upon Babylon. That vengeance is pictured as drying up her sea and her springs, so that her waters fail and her river and water sources are dried up. The drying of the waters is judgment that brings the ancient kingdom to an end, leaving Babylon in destruction and desolation and permanent ruin. It belongs to the detailed prophecy of Babylon's doom and overthrow.

This judgment is God's opposition to Babylon and its religious system. The lament against Babylon stands as evidence that paganism persecuted God's faithful people. The destruction came as the outcome of the city's pride and self-exaltation. Warning was given and mercy was offered, but Babylon ignored the warning and was not healed, so its doom is presented as a lesson for peoples and cities that forget and defy God.

God's truth abides over Babylon's perverted principles, and her destruction is the fruitage of her own sowing of error and confusion and death. The verse means that God numbered Belshazzar's weak and dissolute and riotous and idolatrous and blasphemous kingdom and finished it. He weighed it in the balances and found it wanting, and divided it and gave it to the Medes and Persians.

Antitype and Present Warning

The prophecy against Babylon belongs to both the ancient empire and mystical Babylon, for the Babylon of Jeremiah's day serves as a type of the great, mystical Babylon whose doom is foretold in Revelation. The prophecy in Jeremiah 50 and 51 moves by sudden transition from type to antitype. It applied primarily and typically to ancient Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians, when God pleaded His people's cause and dried up her sea and springs, and it applies emphatically and finally to the day of the Lord when modern Babylon and all sinners are punished as portrayed in Revelation 18.

Its fall foretold is not only the fall of Babylon's city but of its empire, which fell suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, and the same prophecy also applies to antitypical Babylon, the apostate harlot system that rules over the nations. God taking up the cause of His people and drying up Babylon's sea and springs portrays the judgment that brings the ancient kingdom to an end in destruction and desolation, and that destruction foreshadows the final destruction of modern, religious Babylon at the close of the world. The historical fall thus also pictures the desolation of modern Babylon and the whole earth as depicted in the final judgments.

The chapter stands as a warning of Babylon's doom which came after its warnings went unheeded. In that warning lie lessons for people and cities that forget and defy God.