Jeremiah 51:55, commentary and pictures

The Lord spoils Babylon and destroys the great voice out of her, silencing its loud clamor, tumult and power and bringing them to an end, while its roaring waves like great waters picture the noisy turmoil of the city and its people uttered even as it is stilled. This was fulfilled when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus took the great walled city after a long siege by turning the Euphrates from its channel and entering the dry riverbed through the open river gates, while Belshazzar feasted in false security and was slain that night and his kingdom numbered, weighed and divided. The judgment came because Babylon had filled its cup of iniquity, disregarded warning and refused offered healing and mercy, as vengeance for His temple upon a proud city that joined religion with state power for persecution and embodied self-exaltation, confusion and error. What was spoken of literal Babylon, city and empire, is at the same time a type of mystical, modern, antitypical Babylon, having a double fulfillment in Revelation 18 in the final and complete overthrow of the great apostate system and of all that God calls Babylon in the earth. Its destruction therefore stands as a warning to proud and wicked cities that forget and defy God, that calamity follows persistent wickedness when sin is no longer restrained, calling them to repent and do right.

Ancient Babylon's Overthrow

Jeremiah 51:55 stands within Jeremiah's prophecy of Babylon's great fall, destruction and doom, pointing not only to the Persian overthrow but to the city's ultimate ruin. It declares that the Lord Himself spoils Babylon and destroys out of her the great voice, silencing its great clamor, tumult, sound and power and bringing them to an end in judgment and desolation. Its roaring waves like great waters picture the noise and tumult of the city and its people, uttered loudly like the roar of great waters and loud waters even as it is silenced to be heard no more.

The judgment came after Babylon filled its cup of iniquity, disregarded warning and refused the healing and mercy offered, and her sins brought judgment upon her. It was vengeance for His temple upon the proud city that joined religion with state power and used that power for persecution, and the fulfillment of true predictions against her perverted principles of self-exaltation, confusion and error. The spoiler is the Medo-Persian kingdom, with the kings of the Medes called to destroy Babylon, the Medes and Persians under Cyrus as generalissimo taking the great walled city and subduing Babylon with many other kingdoms.

The taking occurred after a siege of nearly two years by turning the Euphrates from its channel through the city into a trench and lake and entering the dry riverbed, finding the brass gates of the river walls left open. It came while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure in feasting, drunkenness, revelry and apparent security, with the people unaware and reveling. The Persians entered unaware through the river gates, Belshazzar the weak, dissolute, idolatrous blasphemer was killed that night, and the kingdom was numbered and finished, weighed and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians, with Babylon taken on every quarter and fallen.

The verse foretells the fall of the head of gold before the silver Persian empire takes its place in succession onward to the end, uttered as God's prediction many years before in the great burden of prophecy against Babylon. What happened under Belshazzar proves God true and Babylon false, since no might, scheme, power or wealth of man can save a city or nation that sows within herself error, confusion, destruction and death. The destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon; Babylon gradually fell into decay and became desolate heaps without inhabitant, literally fulfilling the prophecy of utter desolation that she would sink and not rise from the evil brought upon her. Its fulfillment is proved by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who did not even know of the prophecy and could have no design to show its fulfillment, by the ruins and buried cities beside the Euphrates now mounds and heaps whose dug-up stones, bricks, sculptured slabs, inscriptions and household goods witness to the destroyed power, and by the sign in which Seraiah read the roll, tied a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates to show Babylon would so sink.

Type of Mystical Babylon

Jeremiah 51:55 belongs to the prophecy against Babylon, standing within the prophecies from chapter 46 onward against the kingdoms surrounding Israel that pronounce their doom. It speaks of literal Babylon, not of its city alone but of its empire, which fell suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. At the same time it presents that ancient empire as a type of mystical, modern, antitypical Babylon.

Its details of ruin could not possibly be fulfilled simply in the destruction of the literal Chaldean city. They describe the final and complete overthrow of all that God calls Babylon in the earth. They point to the downfall of the whole world and the ruin of the nations, and in particular to the fall of Babylon the Great.

By sudden transition from type to antitype the spoiling of ancient Babylon and the silencing of her great voice also describes the punishment of modern Babylon and of all sinners in the day of the Lord. That modern Babylon is the great apostate system that rules over the nations, the confused religious world, whose destruction comes when God ends earthly history. It has a double fulfillment set forth in Revelation 18. Its destruction comes after it refused the healing God offered and after its sins brought judgment upon it.

The prophecies in Revelation refer to this apostate Babylon, not to a rebuilt ancient city. So the destruction of Babylon in Jeremiah shows the fate of Babylon the Great prophesied in Revelation. The chapter shows God's open and irreconcilable hostility to the Babylonian system of religion and His defense of His people, in vengeance for His temple in calling the kings of the Medes to destroy Babylon, spoiling Babylon and destroying its great voice in the overthrow of that city and nation. But for such judgments of God the states influenced by that system would have crushed out the last follower of Christ. Yet after that overthrow the same system is perpetuated, with the power of the state turned to its support in the succeeding kingdoms.

Warning to Modern Cities

The Lord's spoiling of Babylon and silencing of its great voice, whose roaring tumult rises like the roar of great waters, stands as a warning and lesson for cities and people that forget and defy God. That warning is applied to New York and Chicago, and with them to San Francisco, the Queen of the West laid low, and to other places as well as to modern cities generally. Babylon's judgment shows that proud, openly wicked cities that defy God may meet the fate their conduct invites.

Calamity follows persistent wickedness when the consequences of sin are no longer restrained. In this way Babylon's destruction warns cities and people who defy God, calling them to repent and do right.