Jeremiah 51:46, commentary and pictures

Jeremiah's word belongs to his prophecies against foreign nations, especially Babylon, sent when that power had filled up its guilt as a message of coming judgment that still offered warning and mercy. Its plain burden is not to let heart fail or be afraid at the reports heard in the land, for report shall follow report from year to year, joined with violence in the land and ruler rising against ruler. To the exiles it was a given sign that the end was near, a first report when the invader began his work and paused and a second about a year later when he advanced again, with strife and violence just before the fall, meant to keep them from despair and to tell them when to flee and escape fierce anger under God's guiding hand. That prediction was proved true in history, spoken long before Babylon reached its height and fulfilled in the sudden capture of city and empire while its king feasted in security, with the ruins by the Euphrates left desolate without inhabitant as its witness. Ancient Babylon stands as the type of mystical latter-day Babylon whose ruin is foretold in Revelation, so the prophecy finds double fulfillment in old Babylon humbled by Medes and Persians and in modern Babylon punished in the day of the Lord, making the call to come out and forsake sin and pride as urgent now as then.

Setting and Plain Meaning

Jeremiah 51:46 stands within the prophecies against foreign nations in Jeremiah chapters 46 to 51, and especially within the prophecy against Babylon. That prophecy concerns both the ancient empire and, as type, mystical Babylon. It is the divine message sent through Jeremiah to ancient Babylon when it had filled the cup of its iniquity, a message of impending judgment that was at the same time gracious warning and offered mercy. Secure Babylon saw no reason to tremble at it, so the message was slighted and went unheeded, and Babylon was left unhealed.

The verse warns against letting the heart faint or fearing for the rumor heard in the land, for rumor would come in one year and again in another year, with violence in the land and ruler against ruler. It therefore foretold repeated alarming reports arising in successive years, accompanied by violence as rulers opposed and turned against one another. For the exiles in Babylon this sequence was given as a sign that destruction was near. The first rumor came when Cyrus began his campaign and then paused and delayed for a year, and the second rumor came about a year later when he advanced again the next spring, followed shortly before the Babylonian defeat by violence and ruler against ruler.

The sign was meant to keep God's people from despair and fear and to tell them when Babylon's fall was near, so they could leave Babylon and escape the Lord's fierce anger and judgment, and the events unfolded under God's direction. It was God's warning to His people in ancient Babylon just before His wrath fell, heard by those who had ears to hear, to go out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord. That warning required quick moves, and life depended on heeding it.

Fulfilled in History

The verse stands as part of God's great burden of prophecy against Babylon, spoken many years before its fall and in detail before the city reached the height of its power. Its predictions of Babylon and its downfall are proved fulfilled by facts recorded in history by impartial writers who did not know the prophecy. That fulfillment marks the fall of the head of gold before the silver empire takes its place in succession, with the ruins of Babylon presented as evidence that the doom foretold came to pass.

The prophecy of Babylon's destruction was literally fulfilled, yet its destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon but came ultimately as the city gradually decayed and became desolate. Its ruins by the Euphrates bear witness to that fulfillment in many particulars, until it lay desolate without inhabitant. The prophecy concerned the fall of both Babylon's city and its empire, which fell suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. It is connected with the city's capture by the Persians and the death of Belshazzar.

The prediction was fulfilled in the reign of Belshazzar, to whom warning had come that his kingdom was numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians. The end came while he feasted in idolatry and blasphemy, drinking to Babylon's gods from the plundered vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, when messengers announced Babylon taken on every quarter and the cry went out that Babylon is fallen. This proves that no might or scheme or power or wealth of man can save a city or nation that sows within itself the seeds of error, confusion, destruction, and death.

The roll of Jeremiah's prophecies against Babylon that foretold its utter desolation to become heaps without inhabitant was carried to Babylon and read there by Seraiah. He then tied a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates as a sign that Babylon shall sink and shall not rise from the evil brought upon her. That destruction follows Babylon's pride and its union of religion with state power, connecting its fall with the consequences of its own principles. The divine message of impending judgment had been slighted and went unheeded, with secure Babylon seeing no reason to tremble at it, leaving Babylon unhealed.

Type and Present Warning

Ancient Babylon in Jeremiah's day is a type of mystical, great Babylon whose doom is pronounced and whose fate is foretold in Revelation. The prophecy against Babylon is presented both as concerning the ancient empire and as concerning mystical Babylon. It points beyond ancient Babylon to antitypical Babylon, the apostate system that rules over the nations. The prophecy of ancient Babylon's destruction portrays the final destruction of modern Babylon at the end of the world. The fall of both Babylon's city and its empire, which fell suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, therefore looks forward to that larger fall.

The prophecy of Babylon's fate in Jeremiah 50 and 51 has a double fulfillment. Typically it applies to ancient Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians. Antitypically it applies to modern Babylon and to all sinners punished in the day of the Lord.

God's warning came to His people in ancient Babylon just before His wrath fell, heard by those who had ears to hear. They were to go out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord, and not let the heart faint nor fear for the rumor heard in the land, though rumor would come one year and after that in another year rumor would come, with violence in the land and ruler against ruler. The warning required quick moves, and life and eternal salvation depended on heeding it. The warning is just as urgent now in forsaking sin and all earth's Babylons of pride before great world-Babylon goes down in final ruin.

The verse belongs among lessons warning peoples and cities that forget and defy God. The warning is applied to places such as New York and Chicago as well as San Francisco. It serves as a lesson for cities that forget and defy God, including New York and Chicago, that warnings may go unheeded until judgment comes. The lesson from Babylon's doom is that warnings may come repeatedly before judgment, and unheeded warnings do not prevent calamity. The lesson applies to cities and people who defy God, including those in the present day. Proud, God-defying cities may face judgment after earlier warnings and punishments. San Francisco is compared with Babylon and Tyre: its open wickedness had invited catastrophe, and a warning of coming judgment had been given before the earthquake.