Jeremiah 51:44, commentary and pictures

God will judge Babylon's chief idol, strip from him the peoples and riches he has devoured, end the streaming of the nations to his shrine, and throw down Babylon's wall. Bel is the god of Babylon, so his punishment is the exposure of her idolatry and the breaking of her power over the nations and their wealth. The sentence belongs to Jeremiah's burden of Babylon's doom, spoken long before the fall when her iniquity was full, and it foretells not only the city but the empire giving place to the kingdom that follows. It was fulfilled when Cyrus took the city in Belshazzar's idolatrous feast, and the ruin then begun went on until Babylon sank into heaps without inhabitants, which its ruins by the Euphrates still witness. Applied typically to ancient Babylon, it applies with double force to mystical Babylon, the apostate system of Revelation, whose healing was offered and refused and whose final destruction proves that God's truth abides while perverted principles end in confusion.

Judgment Pronounced and Fulfilled

God will punish Bel in Babylon, bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed up, cause the nations to flow together to him no more, and bring down the wall of Babylon. This is the doom foretold for Babylon, the declaration of its final destruction.

Bel is Babylon's idol and god, and his punishment is judgment upon Babylon's idolatry. What he had swallowed up, the nations and wealth gathered to him, shall be taken out of his mouth and recovered from him. The nations shall no longer gather and flow together unto him, his power shall end, and the wall shall fall.

The word belongs to Jeremiah's burden and prophecy of Babylon's destruction and doom. It was sent through Jeremiah when the nation had filled its cup of iniquity, a warning of impending judgment. Spoken many years before the fall, it gave particulars concerning the fate of the then flourishing city and kingdom. It marks the fall of the head of gold before the silver empire takes its place in succession onward to the end.

The judgment came because of Babylon's character, its pride and defiance of God. It followed religious and political exaltation and persecution of God's people, paganism's persecution of those loyal to God. Its destruction was God's defense of His people and His vengeance for His temple.

It predicts the fall not of the city alone but of the empire, coming suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords feel secure. Ancient Babylon was humbled by the Medes and Persians, and the overthrow was fulfilled in Cyrus's capture of the city. The chapter is recommended for understanding the historical overthrow of the city.

Its fulfillment is proved in Belshazzar's end, when he was weak, dissolute, riotous and idolatrous, blaspheming God and worshiping Babylon and her deities. He held festivals to her greatness and drank from the plundered gold and silver vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, drinking to gods of gold and wood and stone. Then appeared the handwriting announcing his kingdom numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Before he rose Babylon was taken on every quarter and fell, which no might or scheme or power or wealth of man could prevent, because she sowed within herself seeds of error, confusion, destruction and death.

The destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon, but pointed to its eventual ruin in gradual decline to utter desolation. The city would become heaps without inhabitants and would sink never to rise again. Babylon's ruins by the Euphrates bear witness to the truth of the prophecy and its literal fulfillment.

Type and Warning Today

Babylon means both the ancient empire and mystical Babylon, and the Babylon of Jeremiah's time stands as a type of the great mystical Babylon whose fate is foretold in Revelation. The prophecy makes a sudden transition from type to antitype and carries a double application beyond the fall of the ancient city and empire to antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth. Applied primarily and typically to ancient Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians, it applies emphatically to the day of the Lord as a vivid picture of the final destruction of modern Babylon, the confused religious world, when God closes all earthly accounts and modern Babylon with all sinners shall be punished. It predicts the fall not merely of the city but of the empire, coming suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords feel secure, and it does not predict a rebuilding of literal Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by sudden destruction.

The verse belongs to a warning of impending judgment sent when the nation had filled its cup of iniquity, and the warning also offered mercy and a remedy intended to heal Babylon, but Babylon ignored it until its doom came and was not healed. That despised warning teaches that warnings against wickedness and defiance of God must be heeded, and the lesson applies to cities and people in the present as well. Babylon's pride and defiance bringing its downfall is a lesson for cities that forget and defy God, including New York and Chicago.

Applied to the churches, the first angel's message was the remedy intended to heal Babylon, but its rejection left the churches fallen in confusion and worldliness. By punishing Bel in Babylon and overthrowing the city, the verse proves that God's truth abides while Babylon's perverted principles end in confusion and destruction. It was fulfilled when Belshazzar, weak, dissolute, riotous, idolatrous, blaspheming God and worshiping Babylon and her deities, held festivals to her greatness and drank from the plundered gold and silver vessels of the temple at Jerusalem to gods of gold and wood and stone. Then the handwriting announcing his kingdom numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians appeared, and before he rose Babylon was taken on every quarter and fell with the cry Babylon is fallen, is fallen, which no might or scheme or power or wealth of man could prevent because she sowed within herself seeds of error, confusion, destruction and death.