A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:
The outcry from Babylon announces great destruction falling on the land of the Chaldeans because of sin, pride and self-exaltation, leaving the city overthrown and desolate. It was uttered as God's burden while the kingdom and queen city were still flourishing, more than fifty years before its fall, foretelling that the head of gold would give place to the Persian power. The ruin broke in when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus seized the undefended river gates, slew Belshazzar and his people, and ended the Babylonish empire. That overthrow was not the end, for the city was to become heaps without inhabitant and sink never to rise, lying desolate for centuries by the Euphrates as witness to the sureness of prophecy. Literal Babylon stands as type of mystical Babylon, so the prophecy passes by double fulfillment to the sudden final ruin of Babylon the Great, the apostate system exalted against God, at the day of the Lord at the end of the world. It was given as gracious warning and offer of mercy when iniquity was full, but the warning was slighted and healing refused, teaching that no might, scheme or wealth can save a city or nation that sows within itself the seeds of destruction and death.
Babylon's Destruction Foretold
The sound is of outcry rising from Babylon itself, with great ruin coming upon the land of the Chaldeans, because the city is punished for its sin and pride and self-exaltation, overthrown and left desolate. It is part of God's great burden of prophecy against Babylon, spoken while that kingdom and its queen city of Chaldea were still flourishing, many years before its fall. That word was given more than fifty years before Babylon fell, foretelling the fall of the head of gold before the silver Persian empire should take its place in succession.
The ruin and outcry were to arise when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as generalissimo should take the city, and the Medo-Persian power succeeding Babylon is portrayed as a cruel spoiler marked by bloodshed and conquest. The cry of alarm and great destruction came when the Persians captured the city after seizure of its undefended river gates. Then Cyrus's army entered, Belshazzar and his people were slain, the kingdom fell, and the Babylonish empire ended.
The taking was exactly accomplished in the beginning of the sixteenth year of Belshazzar, in B.C. 538, after a siege of nearly two years against walls eighty-seven feet thick and three hundred and fifty feet high. Cyrus turned the Euphrates through a trench and canal into a lake west of the city and marched his men through the dried river channel on the night of an annual festival, while king and city were given to feasting and drunkenness and revelry in apparent security. He found the two-leaved brass gates of the river walls left open, entered into the heart of the city, and took it. The cry of destruction was heard in literal Babylon on that night of Belshazzar's feast, when messengers ran with word that the city was taken on every quarter and the people cried that Babylon was fallen. That end came as numbered, weighed, divisions, the fruit of Babylon's own sowing of error, confusion, self-exaltation and idolatry.
The destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew the city, for the prophecy pointed to ultimate ruin, that the city would become heaps without inhabitant and would sink and not rise from the evil brought upon her. After Alexander died there, the city gradually declined and for many centuries lay desolate, fulfilling the word literally. Its fulfillment is seen in the great heap of ruins by the river Euphrates, which bears long witness to the truth of God's Word and the sureness of prophecy. The roll of Jeremiah's prophecies was carried to the Euphrates, where Seraiah read it and tied a stone to it and cast it into the river as a sign that thus Babylon shall sink. In answer, buried mounds by the Euphrates held stones and sculptured slabs and bricks and pottery and sarcophagi and ornaments for more than twenty centuries, until men from England and the United States with the Bible as guide dug them up and carried them to London and Philadelphia, letting the very stones cry out as witnesses that the word stands.
Type of Final Babylon
The ancient kingdom condemned in the prophecy serves also as a type of mystical Babylon, for literal Babylon in Jeremiah's day was a type of the great mystical Babylon of the last days. The overthrow announced by the cry from Babylon and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans reaches beyond the ancient city to point to the final ruin of the world's nations, and especially to Babylon the Great, the power that exalts itself against God. The verse concerns the sudden fall not only of the city but of the Chaldean empire, which fell while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, and it has a further application to antitypical Babylon, the apostate system that rules over the nations.
The prophecy has a double fulfillment from type to antitype, applying primarily to the fall of literal Babylon and by transition to the day of the Lord in which modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished. In that further sense it vividly portrays the cries and devastation coming upon the Chaldean land when God's judgment falls as the final destruction of modern, spiritual Babylon at the end of the world. As one of the judgments on the kingdoms surrounding Israel, the destruction foretold reveals the fate of Babylon the great prophesied in Revelation. It stands within prophecies reaching forward to restoration under Christ, in which the faithful remnant of literal Israel serves as a type of Israel under the new covenant with God's law written in heart and spirit and with the coming of Christ foretold over and over.
The cry and great destruction come as God's judgment and vengeance for His temple, setting forth His open and irreconcilable hostility to the Babylonian system of religion and His defense of His people, executed when the kings of the Medes are called to make bright their arrows and gather their shields to destroy Babylon. Such judgments of God upon the nations from time to time keep states influenced by the Babylonian system from crushing out the last follower of Christ and denying him religious rights. Yet after the overthrow of that city and nation the same Babylonian system is perpetuated, with state power turned to its support in succeeding kingdoms.
Warning Mercy and Lesson
The sound from Babylon belongs to a divine message sent through Jeremiah to ancient Babylon when it had filled the cup of its iniquity, a message of impending judgment that gave gracious warning and offered mercy whose record remains in Jeremiah 50 and 51, but the warning was slighted and went unheeded. It stands in a chapter describing Babylon's fall and destruction, invoked as evidence that Babylon would not be healed after rejecting the message intended to cure her.
The cry and great destruction come as God's judgment and vengeance for His temple, setting forth His open and irreconcilable hostility to the Babylonian system of religion and His defense of His people. That vengeance is executed when the kings of the Medes are called to make bright their arrows and gather their shields to destroy Babylon. It is the lamentable answer linking Babylon with persecution to the question of whether paganism persecuted God's people. Such judgments of God upon the nations from time to time keep states influenced by the Babylonian system from crushing out the last follower of Christ and denying him religious rights.
The chapter is presented as a warning of judgment against Babylon whose people ignored warnings until doom came, a lesson for cities and people that forget and defy God. The cry rising from Babylon and great destruction coming from the land of the Chaldeans gives warning through Babylon's destruction, with distress and ruin set forth as a lesson for cities that forget and defy God, including New York and Chicago. Babylon facing great destruction as the sound of a cry rises from the land of the Chaldeans is a warning and lesson for proud, God-defying places, and San Francisco is compared to a modern Babylon whose wickedness invited catastrophe. No might or scheme or power or wealth of man could save a city or nation that sowed within herself the seeds of destruction and death.
The outcry from Babylon announces great destruction falling on the land of the Chaldeans because of sin, pride and self-exaltation, leaving the city overthrown and desolate. It was uttered as God's burden while the kingdom and queen city were still flourishing, more than fifty years before its fall, foretelling that the head of gold would give place to the Persian power. The ruin broke in when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus seized the undefended river gates, slew Belshazzar and his people, and ended the Babylonish empire. That overthrow was not the end, for the city was to become heaps without inhabitant and sink never to rise, lying desolate for centuries by the Euphrates as witness to the sureness of prophecy. Literal Babylon stands as type of mystical Babylon, so the prophecy passes by double fulfillment to the sudden final ruin of Babylon the Great, the apostate system exalted against God, at the day of the Lord at the end of the world. It was given as gracious warning and offer of mercy when iniquity was full, but the warning was slighted and healing refused, teaching that no might, scheme or wealth can save a city or nation that sows within itself the seeds of destruction and death.
Babylon's Destruction Foretold
The sound is of outcry rising from Babylon itself, with great ruin coming upon the land of the Chaldeans, because the city is punished for its sin and pride and self-exaltation, overthrown and left desolate. It is part of God's great burden of prophecy against Babylon, spoken while that kingdom and its queen city of Chaldea were still flourishing, many years before its fall. That word was given more than fifty years before Babylon fell, foretelling the fall of the head of gold before the silver Persian empire should take its place in succession.
The ruin and outcry were to arise when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as generalissimo should take the city, and the Medo-Persian power succeeding Babylon is portrayed as a cruel spoiler marked by bloodshed and conquest. The cry of alarm and great destruction came when the Persians captured the city after seizure of its undefended river gates. Then Cyrus's army entered, Belshazzar and his people were slain, the kingdom fell, and the Babylonish empire ended.
The taking was exactly accomplished in the beginning of the sixteenth year of Belshazzar, in B.C. 538, after a siege of nearly two years against walls eighty-seven feet thick and three hundred and fifty feet high. Cyrus turned the Euphrates through a trench and canal into a lake west of the city and marched his men through the dried river channel on the night of an annual festival, while king and city were given to feasting and drunkenness and revelry in apparent security. He found the two-leaved brass gates of the river walls left open, entered into the heart of the city, and took it. The cry of destruction was heard in literal Babylon on that night of Belshazzar's feast, when messengers ran with word that the city was taken on every quarter and the people cried that Babylon was fallen. That end came as numbered, weighed, divisions, the fruit of Babylon's own sowing of error, confusion, self-exaltation and idolatry.
The destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew the city, for the prophecy pointed to ultimate ruin, that the city would become heaps without inhabitant and would sink and not rise from the evil brought upon her. After Alexander died there, the city gradually declined and for many centuries lay desolate, fulfilling the word literally. Its fulfillment is seen in the great heap of ruins by the river Euphrates, which bears long witness to the truth of God's Word and the sureness of prophecy. The roll of Jeremiah's prophecies was carried to the Euphrates, where Seraiah read it and tied a stone to it and cast it into the river as a sign that thus Babylon shall sink. In answer, buried mounds by the Euphrates held stones and sculptured slabs and bricks and pottery and sarcophagi and ornaments for more than twenty centuries, until men from England and the United States with the Bible as guide dug them up and carried them to London and Philadelphia, letting the very stones cry out as witnesses that the word stands.
Type of Final Babylon
The ancient kingdom condemned in the prophecy serves also as a type of mystical Babylon, for literal Babylon in Jeremiah's day was a type of the great mystical Babylon of the last days. The overthrow announced by the cry from Babylon and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans reaches beyond the ancient city to point to the final ruin of the world's nations, and especially to Babylon the Great, the power that exalts itself against God. The verse concerns the sudden fall not only of the city but of the Chaldean empire, which fell while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, and it has a further application to antitypical Babylon, the apostate system that rules over the nations.
The prophecy has a double fulfillment from type to antitype, applying primarily to the fall of literal Babylon and by transition to the day of the Lord in which modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished. In that further sense it vividly portrays the cries and devastation coming upon the Chaldean land when God's judgment falls as the final destruction of modern, spiritual Babylon at the end of the world. As one of the judgments on the kingdoms surrounding Israel, the destruction foretold reveals the fate of Babylon the great prophesied in Revelation. It stands within prophecies reaching forward to restoration under Christ, in which the faithful remnant of literal Israel serves as a type of Israel under the new covenant with God's law written in heart and spirit and with the coming of Christ foretold over and over.
The cry and great destruction come as God's judgment and vengeance for His temple, setting forth His open and irreconcilable hostility to the Babylonian system of religion and His defense of His people, executed when the kings of the Medes are called to make bright their arrows and gather their shields to destroy Babylon. Such judgments of God upon the nations from time to time keep states influenced by the Babylonian system from crushing out the last follower of Christ and denying him religious rights. Yet after the overthrow of that city and nation the same Babylonian system is perpetuated, with state power turned to its support in succeeding kingdoms.
Warning Mercy and Lesson
The sound from Babylon belongs to a divine message sent through Jeremiah to ancient Babylon when it had filled the cup of its iniquity, a message of impending judgment that gave gracious warning and offered mercy whose record remains in Jeremiah 50 and 51, but the warning was slighted and went unheeded. It stands in a chapter describing Babylon's fall and destruction, invoked as evidence that Babylon would not be healed after rejecting the message intended to cure her.
The cry and great destruction come as God's judgment and vengeance for His temple, setting forth His open and irreconcilable hostility to the Babylonian system of religion and His defense of His people. That vengeance is executed when the kings of the Medes are called to make bright their arrows and gather their shields to destroy Babylon. It is the lamentable answer linking Babylon with persecution to the question of whether paganism persecuted God's people. Such judgments of God upon the nations from time to time keep states influenced by the Babylonian system from crushing out the last follower of Christ and denying him religious rights.
The chapter is presented as a warning of judgment against Babylon whose people ignored warnings until doom came, a lesson for cities and people that forget and defy God. The cry rising from Babylon and great destruction coming from the land of the Chaldeans gives warning through Babylon's destruction, with distress and ruin set forth as a lesson for cities that forget and defy God, including New York and Chicago. Babylon facing great destruction as the sound of a cry rises from the land of the Chaldeans is a warning and lesson for proud, God-defying places, and San Francisco is compared to a modern Babylon whose wickedness invited catastrophe. No might or scheme or power or wealth of man could save a city or nation that sowed within herself the seeds of destruction and death.