Jeremiah 50

Two long chapters are devoted to “the word … concerning Babylon” (verse 1). In Jeremiah 46-49 we see that Babylon is the disciplinary rod in the hand of God to discipline other nations. Now God’s judgment comes on this rod (cf. Isa 10:5-19). This judgment comes on it because the disciplinary rod is even worse than Israel itself. God disciplines His children because He loves them. When the rod goes beyond God’s purpose, God must judge the rod. God blames Babylon for executing judgment on Jerusalem in a way that He did not ordain (cf. Hab 1:13).

Again we have a double layer. Babylon is judged by the Medes and Persians (Dan 5:28-30). The Medes and Persians are the rod of God for Babylon. Babylon is also the great God-hating power in the end time, represented there in the restored Roman Empire. We know this, because judgment on Babylon is connected to the restoration of Israel in the end time, when the two and ten tribes are back in the land.

Jeremiah now, commissioned by the LORD, fearlessly speaks the word against mighty Babylon (verse 1; Jer 25:26; 27:7). This word spans two long chapters. Jeremiah makes the announcement of judgment on Babylon heard among the nations, who have also suffered under the yoke of Babylon (verse 2). When deliverance from that yoke comes, they may lift up a standard and say that Babylon has been captured. With that, his chief god Bel and other idols have also lost their power, they have been shattered.

The enemy who will defeat Babylon, comes from the north, just as Babylon itself, coming from the north, is an enemy for Israel (verse 3). The enemies for Babylon are the Medes and Persians. They defeat Babylon and turn the land into an object of horror, from which all life flees. The final fulfillment of this lies in the future.

After the conquest “in those days and at that time”, Israelites from the twelve tribes, “the sons of Israel … they and the sons of Judah as well”, will set out to seek the LORD their God (verse 4). This happens as soon as the Medes and Persians are in power. Then in the first year of his reign, Cyrus gives the command that anyone who wants to go back to Jerusalem may go (Ezra 1:2-3).

All who take advantage of that opportunity will go to Zion (verse 5). That is where their heart is, that is their destination, that is where they set their faces, for the temple is there. They will come there and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be broken again or forgotten. There will be no new covenant breaking, because this covenant depends only on the faithfulness of the LORD. And He is the everlasting faithful One.

The LORD sees His people as “lost sheep” (cf. Mt 9:36) who have fallen victim to false shepherds (verse 6). These shepherds have fed themselves and left the sheep to their fate. They have not given them a place to rest, but have hounded them to keep their self-made commandments. These erring sheep have become easy prey for their adversaries (verse 7).

Added to that, those opponents also boast that they are innocent of this exploitation, because God’s people have sinned, and they are executing God’s judgment. They even manage to use beautiful and telling names for the LORD. He is “the habitation of righteousness”. Because the Israelites have sinned against it, they devour them. He is also “the hope of their fathers”. In that hope they did not follow their fathers, but sinned.

That devouring by adversaries has come to an end. God’s people are now called to flee from Babylon, back to Israel, to Jerusalem, to the LORD (verse 8). Those who go are a first ‘batch’; the rest of “the flock” will follow at another time.

For the execution of judgment on Babylon, the LORD raises up a horde of great nations (verse 9). These are the nations of the Medes and Persians. They come from the north to Babylon and take it captive. They do so with ruthless precision. The use of their weapons is not a battle in the air. Chaldea becomes their booty and it is not inconsiderable (verse 10).

Judgment comes upon Babylon because the Babylonians have plundered the sanctuary of the LORD with great joy and without restraint (verse 11). They have acted in God’s land like an elated calf in freshly mown grass and have raged against God’s people like stallions. Therefore, there is now shame for Babylon toward her mother (verse 12). A mother usually likes to see her child’s success. That is not the case here. On the contrary. Babylon has gone from being the foremost of all nations, to being the least. Nothing remains of all its former glory. It is “a wilderness, a parched land and a desert”.

The indignation of the LORD is so great, that she will not be inhabited again (verse 13). Instead of admiration, it will provoke consternation in everyone who passes by Babylon (cf. Jer 19:8). This will be fully fulfilled in the end time (Rev 18:1-19).

The LORD calls His instruments to make themselves ready to fight against Babylon (verse 14). They need not hold back when it comes to using their arrows. The supply will not run out. The LORD will give enough to execute His judgment on Babylon, for she has sinned against Him. What they have done against His people has been done against Him. Whoever touches His people, touches the apple of His eye.

The LORD also foretells victory here already (verse 15). Babylon will surrender and the Medes and Persians can rejoice. All her defenses have fallen and been broken down. The people the LORD uses, are carrying out His vengeance. He is doing it. They may avenge themselves and treat Babylon as she has acted herself. Babylon reaps what she has sown (Gal 6:7b). There will be no more literal harvest for Babylon (verse 16). The sowers will be exterminated, and for what still grows, there will be no reapers, for they too will be exterminated. All who have been conquered by Babylon will flee, each to his land of origin.

After describing the judgment on Babylon, another word comes about Israel (verse 17). God’s people are compared to a cornered sheep that has been chased by two lions. One lion is the king of Assyria, the other the king of Babylon. They have left nothing of Israel. Therefore, the LORD will punish both nations (verse 18). Assyria has already been punished, having been given up to the power of Nebuchadnezzar. The king of Babylon will suffer the same fate as Assyria and in turn will be judged by the next world empire that God is raising up for it, namely the Medes and Persians.

As God punishes nations for their heartless behavior toward His people, so He will have mercy on His people (verse 19). He will bring His people back to their dwelling place and let them live there in peace and quiet: that is Carmel in the northwest, Bashan in the northeast, Ephraim, the ten tribes realm in the land and Gilead in the region at the other side of the Jordan. This will happen “in those days and in that time”, which are the days and the time of the future realm of peace (verse 20).

Then all the people, Israel and Judah, will be restored in the land because they will be free from their iniquity and their sins. This is because the LORD has pardoned the remnant which is “all Israel” (Rom 11:26). Therefore, any search for iniquity or sin is futile. This is how God does when He pardons sins: He erases them and they are gone, also gone out of His mind. This is possible because Christ has borne the sins of those who are pardoned, and anyone who repents of his sins and believes in the Lord Jesus, is pardoned of his sins.

Again, the LORD addresses the instruments of His anger on Babylon. They are to march against Babylon (verse 21). Merathaim is a poetic name for Babylon and means “double rebellion”. It speaks of Babylon’s pride and haughtiness and unwillingness to bow down. Therefore, the land and its inhabitants are to be destroyed and put under a spell. In doing so, they must not follow their own will, but must do according to all that the LORD has commanded them.

When the hostile armies enter the land of Babylon, it will be under the noise of battle (verse 22). The land faces a great destruction. Babylon, which has pounded on the nations like a sledgehammer and subjected those nations to itself, is now itself cut off and broken down (verse 23). The horror that went out from Babylon and caused fear has become a horror of dismay at what has happened to that people. Babylon has been captured by the LORD because it has engaged in battle against the LORD (verse 24).

Babylon does not reckon with the LORD and with His power, but that people will have to deal with the instruments of His indignation coming out of His armory (verse 25). The LORD of hosts will do His work in the land of the Chaldeans. No one will be able to prevent that. He calls His armies from the ends of the earth to take Babylon and rob her of all her supplies, leaving nothing that remains (verse 26). The animals must also be killed (verse 27). The “woe” comes upon them, for their day has come to repay them for all the injustice they have done to God’s people.

Those who fled from Babylon and escaped will go to Zion to report what happened in Babylon (verse 28). They will know how to tell that Babylon was judged, because God avenged His temple on them. The Babylonians destroyed God’s temple. God will punish them for that because they did it in proud arrogance.

Again, the LORD calls the archers against Babylon (verse 29). They are to besiege Babylon from all sides and they are not to let anyone escape. Babylon is to be repaid according to all that she has done herself. With the measure by which she has measured, she himself must be measured (Mt 7:2b). The hubris with which she has acted against the LORD, “the Holy One of Israel”, is the cause of this judgment. Babylon will lose her young men and all her men of war (verse 30). Thus, the strength of this people will be broken.

“The Lord GOD of hosts” solemnly pronounces that He will punish this overconfident nation (verse 31). The time for that has come. And when the overconfident one has fallen, there will be no one to raise him up (verse 32). He will lie down forever. He will also have no place to live, for all his cities, yes, everything around him, will be devoured by a fire that the LORD Himself has kindled.

Against the oppressors of all Israel, all twelve tribes – “the sons of Israel … and the sons of Judah as well” –, the wrath of the LORD has been kindled (verse 33). They – Assyria, Babylon, and countless other nations – oppressed His people and held them captive and would not let them go.

But their Redeemer, their Goel, is strong (verse 34). His Name is “LORD of hosts” to Whom all heavenly and earthly powers are subject. He will stand up for His people and plead their case. Then the land, His land, will come to rest (Jer 31:2). The inhabitants of Babylon will know no rest, but turmoil.

Previously the sword of the LORD has come upon Judah (Jer 12:12) and upon the Philistines (Jer 47:6) Now it comes upon all the layers of Babylon (verses 35-37). It is the sword of the avenger of blood, of God as the Redeemer of His people. The sword of death comes against the Chaldeans, against the inhabitants of Babylon, against her officials and against her wise men (verse 35). The common man, the officials and the counselors all perish.

The LORD calls them “oracle priests” who, because of this judgment, do not come to understanding, but to acting foolishly (verse 36). Nothing is to be expected of their mighty men. The sword also comes against them and they will be shattered. There is no strength to defend themselves. Their horses and chariots also fall under the blows of the sword (verse 37). The strangers who are in their midst will become like frightened women. The treasures they have looted will be plundered. No one and nothing will remain of Babylon.

The next judgment is drought (verse 38). There will be no more water. Their thirst will be so great that they will act like fools in order to thereby induce their idol to give them water. In all this, they are not turning to the living God. When Babylon is depopulated and the land has become a desert, no human being will ever be able to live there again (verse 39). The only inhabitants will be wild desert creatures along with the jackals and the ostriches. God has done to Babylon what He did to Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring places (verse 40).

For His judgment on Babylon, the LORD uses a people from the north (verse 41). They are a great people with numerous kings. They come from the corners of the earth. All their soldiers are skilled in the use of bow and spear (verse 42). They wield their weapons ruthlessly. They know not mercy. Their voice of mass war cries sounds like the sea. They are also swift, for they ride horses. Then they line up for battle. There is no mistaking who the battle will be against. It is “against you, o daughter of Babylon”.

When the upcoming army in all its strength is thus painted, the king of Babylon loses courage (verse 43). He is seized with the distress that seizes a woman in childbirth. Then there is no strength or even thought of resistance. Babylon himself had been compared to a lion, but now his enemy is so represented (verse 44).

This lion – Cyrus, but in reality, the LORD – emerges from “the thicket of the Jordan” and is sent by the LORD to Babylon, against that strong dwelling place. But his strong habitation offers no protection against this enemy. After all, the LORD has appointed him, hasn’t He? Who can raise any objection to that? No false shepherd who has so exploited His flock can stand before Him.

The plan concerning Babylon comes from the LORD (verse 45). He communicates His plans that He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans, and it is important to listen to them. The weakest of the flock, those who have been the prey of false shepherds and have not been able to defend themselves, will drag the mighty away from Babylon and destroy its habitation. The rumor that Babylon has been seized will cause great consternation in all the earth and among the nations (verse 46).