Jeremiah 51:63, commentary and pictures

When the reading of the foretold doom of Babylon was finished, the scroll was to be weighted with a stone and sunk in the midst of the Euphrates to show that Babylon would sink to rise no more from the evil to come upon her. It was fulfilled when Babylon in her pride and security was taken by the Medes and Persians, when Cyrus turned aside the river and his forces entered through the river gates in the night of feasting in which Belshazzar was slain and the kingdom was numbered, weighed, divided and given to the Medes and Persians. That overthrow began a wasting that ended in utter desolation without inhabitant, whose ruins by the river still stand as proof, marking the fall of the head of gold before Persia in the succession of kingdoms. The sinking of the book is the sign and pattern of the fall of end-time Babylon, which as the antitype of ancient Babylon will be thrown down with violence to rise no more, like a millstone cast into the sea whose place is found no more at all in Revelation 18. It therefore has double application to the great apostate system ruling the nations, giving no ground to look for a rebuilt literal Babylon on the Euphrates, but standing as warning to proud and wicked cities that forget and defy God.

Sign and Historical Setting

Seraiah came to Babylon by the Euphrates bearing Jeremiah's roll of prophecies in chapters 50 and 51, which foretold the utter desolation of Babylon to become heaps without inhabitant. When the reading of the book was finished, a stone was to be bound to the scroll and it was to be cast into the midst of the Euphrates, acting out Babylon's coming judgment and fall.

The reading was a public warning given on the bank of the Euphrates where it flowed through the midst of Babylon, in the broad street before vast crowds of the busy and pleasure-loving city. The book was read with a loud voice as a long arraignment of Babylon for her pride, oppression, and great wickedness, together with certain coming doom of destruction. Yet even in that proud and wicked city the messenger was not arrested nor charged with anarchy or disturbing practices or mischievous intent.

Binding a stone to the written prophecy and plunging it into the river pictured and signified that Babylon shall sink and shall not rise from the evil God will bring upon her, and they shall be weary.

Fulfillment in Ancient Babylon

Jeremiah 51:63 belongs to Jeremiah's great burden of prophecy foretelling Babylon's destruction and judgment many years before it happened. It foretells that Babylon is taken and made wholly desolate, with its waters dried up and no one dwelling there. It stands among the leading predictions of God against Babylon, cited as evidence that the proud city would ultimately be destroyed.

It belonged to the divine message of impending judgment, gracious warning, and proffered mercy sent when ancient Babylon had filled the cup of its iniquity. The message was slighted and went unheeded, yet its record remains that Babylon would have been healed but she is not healed. It foretold the taking of Babylon and the Medes and Persians as the people who would accomplish it, with the particular circumstances attending it.

That prophecy was exactly fulfilled when Cyrus, called by name and appointed to his work by God over two hundred and sixty years before, besieged Babylon and took it by drying the Euphrates and entering through the river gates left open during a night of feasting, drunkenness, and apparent security. The sudden fall was not of the city of Babylon alone but of the Babylonian Empire, fulfilled when Belshazzar and his lords were overthrown in the midst of their feeling of security. This came when Cyrus became undisputed master of the city in the night massacre in which Belshazzar was slain, when the Persians entered through the river gates and the city was taken on every quarter that same night.

The predictions were fulfilled in the reign of Belshazzar when the handwriting declared God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it, thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting, thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians, and the cry went out Babylon is fallen, is fallen. This proved God true and Babylon false and showed that no might or scheme or power or wealth can save a city or nation that sows within herself the seeds of error, confusion, destruction, and death. That destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon; it came about ultimately as the city gradually declined and became desolate.

The great ruins by the Euphrates stand as lasting evidence that the prophecy was fulfilled. Its fulfillment is proved by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who did not know the prophecy. The verse marks the fall of the head of gold, the Babylonian kingdom, before the silver Persian empire takes its place in succession onward to the end.

The last part of Jeremiah 50 and Jeremiah 51 set forth the character of Babylon and God's defense of His people, calling the kings of the Medes to destroy Babylon because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple. This shows God's attitude toward the Babylonian system of religion as open and irreconcilable hostility. The judgment testifies to God's disfavor toward the system emanating from Babylon and causes the overthrow of that city and that nation, even though the same system is perpetuated afterward with the power of the state turned to its support in succeeding kingdoms.

Type of End-Time Babylon

The reading of Jeremiah 50-51 joins the prophecies concerning ancient Babylon to the fate of great Babylon in Revelation, presenting ancient Babylon as a type of mystical Babylon. That prophecy moves by sudden transition from type to antitype, so what was spoken concerning literal Babylon and its humbling portrays the day of the Lord in which modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished, as Revelation 18 shows.

The sinking of the prophetic book with a stone bound to it in the midst of the Euphrates is the sign and pattern of the final destruction of Babylon. It means end-time Babylon will fall as ancient Babylon fell, in complete, violent and permanent ruin to rise no more. Binding a stone to the book and casting it into the river means Babylon is to be thrown down with violence like a millstone cast into the depth of the sea, with her place found no more at all. Jeremiah binding a stone to the book of judgment against Babylon and casting it into the midst of the Euphrates was a symbol of the sinking and destruction of that earthly power, ancient Babylon, the past example of the same stone-cast symbol used to show the violent fall of modern Babylon.

The prophecy of ancient Babylon's final destruction is a vivid portrayal of the destruction of modern Babylon when God brings earthly history to its close. It is fulfilled in modern Babylon as the past example of the same stone-cast symbol used to show the violent fall of modern Babylon. The verse has a double application beyond ancient Babylon to antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth, whose fall alone is foretold in Revelation. It therefore gives no ground to expect a rebuilding of literal Babylon on the Euphrates followed by another sudden destruction, for the sudden fall foretold was not of the city of Babylon alone but of the Babylonian Empire, fulfilled when Belshazzar and his lords were overthrown in the midst of their feeling of security.

The instruction to bind a stone to the scroll after it has been read and throw it into the Euphrates, acting out Babylon's coming judgment and fall, stands among lessons warning cities that forget and defy God, including New York and Chicago. Jeremiah 51 is included among the lessons of Babylon's unheeded warnings and doom, applied as a warning to cities and people who forget and defy God. It is part of the warning about Babylon's doom, which serves as a lesson about judgment on proud, wicked cities that defy God.