God announces victory over Babylon (Jer. 51:27–58)

Throughout this prophecy, God has frequently announced the fall of Babylon, but this closing section seems to focus on God’s total victory over the enemy.

I. God describes the victory (vv. 27–33)

27 Set up a banner in the land, Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her, Call the kingdoms together against her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a general against her; Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts. 28 Prepare against her the nations, With the kings of the Medes, Its governors and all its rulers, All the land of his dominion. 29 And the land will tremble and sorrow; For every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant. 30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting, They have remained in their strongholds; Their might has failed, They became like women; They have burned her dwelling places, The bars of her gate are broken. 31 One runner will run to meet another, And one messenger to meet another, To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides; 32 The passages are blocked, The reeds they have burned with fire, And the men of war are terrified. 33 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor When it is time to thresh her; Yet a little while And the time of her harvest will come.”

A. Another call to rally for an attack on Babylon is sounded.

God’s armies were prepared, the commanders were ready, and the battle began; but the Babylonian army was helpless! They lay on the walls exhausted; their courage had failed them.

“Prepare the nations” is a reminder that religious rituals were performed before armies engaged in battle, seeking protection and victory from the Lord. The city was in flames, and the bars of the gates were broken. Nothing kept the enemy from entering the city and doing to it what the Babylonians had done to Jerusalem.

B. The figure of the land trembling and writhing describes the awesome coming of God against His enemies.

His purposes to make Babylon uninhabitable would stand. Its defenders would stop fighting, cowering in their strongholds with strength “exhausted”.

The Babylonians had an effective courier system and could quickly send messages to the various parts of their vast empire. In fact, Jeremiah described the runners meeting and exchanging messages for the king: “The river crossings have been seized!” “The marshes are set on fire!” “The soldiers are terrified!” “The city has been captured!”

Runners would come from every direction to tell the Babylonian king that his city had been taken. It was God’s harvest, and Babylon was on the threshing floor.

II. God speaks to the Jews (vv. 34–50)

34 “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon Has devoured me, he has crushed me; He has made me an empty vessel, He has swallowed me up like a monster; He has filled his stomach with my delicacies, He has spit me out. 35 Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon, ”The inhabitant of Zion will say; “And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea! ”Jerusalem will say. 36 Therefore thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry. 37 Babylon shall become a heap, A dwelling place for jackals, An astonishment and a hissing, Without an inhabitant. 38 They shall roar together like lions, They shall growl like lions’ whelps. 39 In their excitement I will prepare their feasts; I will make them drunk, That they may rejoice, And sleep a perpetual sleep And not awake,” says the LORD. 40 “I will bring them down Like lambs to the slaughter, Like rams with male goats. 41 “Oh, how Sheshach is taken! Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become desolate among the nations! 42 The sea has come up over Babylon; She is covered with the multitude of its waves. 43 Her cities are a desolation, A dry land and a wilderness, A land where no one dwells, Through which no son of man passes. 44 I will punish Bel in Babylon, And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed; And the nations shall not stream to him anymore. Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall. 45 “My people, go out of the midst of her! And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the LORD. 46 And lest your heart faint, And you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land (A rumor will come one year, And after that, in another year A rumor will come, And violence in the land, Ruler against ruler), 47 Therefore behold, the days are coming That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon; Her whole land shall be ashamed, And all her slain shall fall in her midst. 48 Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them Shall sing joyously over Babylon; For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the LORD. 49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall. 50 You who have escaped the sword, Get away! Do not stand still! Remember the LORD afar off, And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

A. The Jews reminded the Lord what Nebuchadnezzar had done to them.

Like a vicious monster, he had picked up Judah as if it were a jar filled with food, swallowed down the food, vomited it up, and then broken the jar! He had chewed them up and spit them out! Now the Jews wanted the Lord to repay the Babylonians for all the suffering they had caused the people of God.

God’s reply was encouraging: Like a court advocate, He would take their case, plead their cause, and vindicate them. The Lord described vividly what would happen to Babylon: The ruins of the city would become the haunt of animals and birds, a perpetual cemetery for the people slain in the invasion, a slaughter house where people would die like so many cattle, sheep, and goats.

B. God ordered His people to get out of Babylon and not to linger.

Neither should they be afraid of the rumors they would hear about, which were about to happen. They didn’t need to be afraid of the vain Babylonian idols that could do nothing to hinder them. Heaven and earth will sing songs of praise when Babylon falls.

The punishment of Babylon’s idols was certain (cf. 50:38). When the people saw their idols’ impotence and the dead bodies, the entire land would be ashamed of its misplaced confidence. The entire universe would rejoice over Babylon’s fall

III. The Jews speak and God replies (vv. 51–58)

51 We are ashamed because we have heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, For strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’s house. 52 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “That I will bring judgment on her carved images, And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan. 53 Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven, And though she were to fortify the height of her strength, Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the LORD. 54 The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans, 55 Because the LORD is plundering Babylon And silencing her loud voice, Though her waves roar like great waters, And the noise of their voice is uttered, 56 Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon, And her mighty men are taken. Every one of their bows is broken; For the LORD is the God of recompense, He will surely repay. 57 “And I will make drunk Her princes and wise men, Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep And not awake,” says the King, Whose name is the LORD of hosts. 58 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, And her high gates shall be burned with fire; The people will labor in vain, And the nations, because of the fire; And they shall be weary.”

A. Again the Lord declared that he was going to punish Babylon’s idols.

God, however, made it clear that there was no future in Babylon, for He had determined to destroy the city. If His people remained in Babylon, they would suffer the fate of the city. If they obeyed the Lord and returned home, they would experience a new beginning under the blessing of the Lord.

In their hour of catastrophe, Babylon’s cries of anguish would be heard. The Lord would silence it. Wave after wave of the enemy would engulf the city like a great tidal wave washing over it (cf. 5:22; 6:23). Babylon’s warriors would be captured and its weapons of war broken. The Lord would repay in full for what Babylon had done to other nations.

B. Again the destruction of Babylon’s wall is announced.

Its city walls were one of the wonders of the ancient world. Its tall gates that ordinarily protected the city from invaders would be set on fire. The defenders would exhaust themselves to no avail.

All their efforts would only serve as fuel for the destructive flames. It’s a matter of walking by faith and not by sight, trusting God’s Word instead of our own human evaluation. The exiles saw the high walls and huge gates of the city and concluded that such fortifications would repel any enemy, but they were wrong.