Jeremiah 51:60, commentary and pictures

Jeremiah wrote in a book-roll all the evil and judgments to come upon Babylon, even all the words written against her in Jeremiah 50 and 51. Seraiah carried that roll to Babylon on the Euphrates, read it there, then bound a stone to it and cast it into the river as a sign that Babylon shall sink and not rise from the evil God will bring upon her. The doom fell suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure in feasting and revelry, when the kingdom was numbered and finished, the king weighed and found wanting, and the city was taken on every quarter by the Medes and Persians so that no might or wealth could save her. The heaps and ruins by the Euphrates still stand as evidence that the detailed predictions were fulfilled and that God's prophetic word is true. The Babylon of Jeremiah's day serves as a type of great mystical Babylon, the apostate system ruling over the nations, so that what was spoken of ancient Babylon also portrays the final destruction of modern Babylon, and the same warning now speaks to every proud modern city that forgets and defies God.

Writing and Historical Fulfillment

Jeremiah wrote in a book-roll all the evil to come upon Babylon, even all the words written against her in Jeremiah 50 and 51, recording the calamity and judgments foretold against her. Those two chapters together give predictions concerning the taking of Babylon, the Medes and Persians who should accomplish it under Cyrus, and the particular circumstances that should attend it. They form the great burden of prophecy against Babylon, God's predictions uttered many years before its fall concerning Babylon and its downfall.

Seraiah carried that roll to Babylon on the Euphrates, read it there, then tied a stone to it and cast it into the river. In doing so he declared in the words of the Lord that thus shall Babylon sink and shall not rise from the evil that God will bring upon her. The burden was uttered even before the city reached its height under Nebuchadnezzar. It marks the fall of Babylon as the head of gold before the silver Persian empire takes its place in succession.

The fall came suddenly upon them ere they were aware, while Belshazzar and his lords and the king and the whole city felt secure and gave themselves to feasting, drunkenness and revelry. Cyrus turned the Euphrates and entered through the brass river-gates left open. God numbered the kingdom and finished it, weighed the king in the balances and found him wanting, and divided the kingdom and gave it to the Medes and Persians. Before the king rose from the banquet Babylon was taken on every quarter and the cry went out, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, so that no might or scheme or power or wealth of man could save a city or nation that sowed within herself the seeds of error, confusion, destruction and death.

History proves the fulfillment, for the detailed predictions were exactly accomplished and the ruins stand as evidence that God's prophetic word is true. The heaps of buried cities by the Euphrates and the stones, bricks, sculptures and relics dug from them after more than twenty centuries and carried to London and Philadelphia stand as fulfillment of what was written of utter desolation. The ruins of Babylon by the Euphrates bear witness to the fulfillment of that doom foretold before the city reached its height. That destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon, but the city gradually fell into decay and became desolate heaps without inhabitant, literally fulfilling its ultimate fate.

Typical Judgment and Present Warning

The verse belongs to the prophecy pronouncing doom and destruction on Babylon, a divine message sent through Jeremiah when Babylon had filled the cup of its iniquity, carrying impending judgment with gracious warning and proffered mercy. It declares the evil to come for open, flaunting, God-defying wickedness and self-exaltation, and for union of religion with state power bringing legal religion and persecution. It sets forth God's open and irreconcilable hostility to the Babylonian system of religion that uses the power of the state to propagate false religion and crush the followers of Christ, calling the kings of the Medes to destroy Babylon because it is the vengeance of the Lord and the vengeance of His temple, showing God defending His people by judging the nations acting under its influence, and witnessing to Babylon's persecution of God's people as the first division of Babylon.

The Babylon of Jeremiah's day serves as a type of great, mystical, antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot system ruling over nations and the confused religious world. Jeremiah 50 and 51 first describe ancient Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians but by sudden transition from type to antitype also describe the day of the Lord in which modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished. The prophecies thus portray the final destruction of modern Babylon when God closes all earthly accounts, the final destruction being compared with the destruction of ancient Babylon described in Jeremiah 51, while the prophecy in Revelation predicts the fall of apostate Babylon alone.

The written warning came many times but was slighted and went unheeded until the doom was written and made plain, yet the written record remains and the ruins stand as evidence that the detailed predictions were fulfilled and God's prophetic word is true. Babylon did not heed the warnings, and its destruction as a proud, God-defying city facing judgment became a lesson for later cities and people who forget or defy God. The same warning speaks to San Francisco in her catastrophe and to New York, Chicago and every other place forgetting and defying God, teaching that proud and beautiful modern cities will meet Babylon's fate. It calls not for mere impulse to do better but for principle to do right.