Jeremiah 51:1-5

B. Ruthless Destruction Jeremiah 50:41 to Jeremiah 51:5

TRANSLATION

(41) Behold, a people shall come from the north, a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the distant parts of the earth. (42) They grasp bow and spear; they are cruel and show no mercy; the noise they make sounds like the roaring sea. They ride on horses arrayed as a man for battle against you, O daughter of Babylon. (43) The king of Babylon has heard the news and his hands grow feeble, distress takes hold of him, pangs as a woman in childbirth. (44) Behold, like a lion going up from the pride of Jordan unto the perennial pasture, so will I suddenly make them run from it. The one who is chosen I will appoint over it. For who is like Me? And who will challenge Me? And who is the shepherd who can stand before Me? (45) Therefore, Hear the counsel of the LORD which He has made against Babylon and the plans which He has formulated against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely their pasture shall be shocked over what happens to them. (46) At the sound of the taking of Babylon the earth trembles and the cry is heard among the nations. (1) Thus says the LORD: I am about to raise up against Babylon and against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai a destroying wind. (2) I will send strangers to Babylon and they will winnow her and empty her land; for they shall be against her on all sides in the day of calamity. (3) Let the archer bend his bow against the archer, and against the one who rises up in his armor. Have no mercy upon her youths! Utterly destroy all of her hosts! (4) Slain shall they fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets. (5) For Israel and Judah have not been widowed of their God, the LORD of hosts; because their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

COMMENTS

For the third time the prophet announces the approach of the conquerors of Babylon: Behold, a people shall come from the north. No doubt the prophet is presenting here a composite picture of the several conquerors who would attack the city of Babylon beginning with the Medo-Persian armies of Cyrus and concluding with Parthian armies of Mithridates II. The enemy is described as a great nation because of the size of the host. Many kings all over the world are being stirred up to the attack against Babylon (Jeremiah 50:41). The vast host surges forward towards Babylon armed for war. The sound of their coming is likened to the roar of the sea. They are cruel and ruthless warriors who show no pity to the daughter of Babylon, (i.e., the inhabitants of the city Jeremiah 50:42). The king of Babylon is petrified at the news of the approaching host. His hands become limp; distress seizes his heart like that of a woman beginning her travail (Jeremiah 50:43). One cannot read this description of the terror of the king of Babylon without thinking of what is said of Belshazzar in the Book of Daniel when he hears the prophetic interpretation of the handwriting of doom on the walls of his palace: Then the king's countenance was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his knees smote one against another (Daniel 5:6).

Babylon's judgment shall be that Edom (cf. Jeremiah 49:19-21). It matters nothing to the Lord whether the nation be small and insignificant like Edom or a mighty empire like Babylon. Any nation which proudly lifts itself up against the Holy One of Israel will be punished. Babylon's conqueror will burst upon the land like a lion from the pride (jungle) of the Jordan leaping upon a helpless and unsuspecting flock. No shepherd or leader of Babylon will be able to withstand the impact of this divinely appointed one (Jeremiah 50:44). The Lord God has taken counsel against Babylon and has laid plans for the destruction of that land. The invader will make desolate the inhabitants of that land like helpless sheep (Jeremiah 50:45). The earth trembles in astonishment at the news of Babylon's fall. The final gasping cry of Babylon is heard throughout the nations of the earth (Jeremiah 50:46).

The description of the destroyers of Babylon continues in Jeremiah 51:1-5. God is raising up against Babylon a destroying wind (Jeremiah 50:1) and strangers (Jeremiah 50:2) by means of which He will winnow or sift the inhabitants of Babylonia as a farmer winnows the chaff from the grain. The reference in Jeremiah 50:1 to Leb-kamai (ASV) is most interesting. This term means literally the heart of those who rise up against me. By this title Babylon is designated as the very heart of opposition to the Lord. But the term Leb-kamai has another meaning too, a meaning that the English reader completely misses. Leb-kamai is another example of the use of the cipher called Atbash (cf. Jeremiah 25:26) in which the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is replaced by the last letter, the second letter by the next to the last, the third by the third from the last, etc. When Leb-kamai is decoded it spells the word Chaldeans in Hebrew.

In Jeremiah 50:3 the attacking armies are again addressed. In spite of the fact that the Babylonians stand guard with their weapons and arrayed in their armor, yet the archers are urged to attack them from without. No one is to be spared; every Chaldean soldier is to be slain in the streets of the city (Jeremiah 50:4). The reason for the slaughter is twofold. First, by means of the destruction of Babylon the Lord will prove that Israel and Judah have not been forsaken (lit., widowed) by their God. Second, the land of Babylon is full of guilt with respect to the Holy One of Israel (Jeremiah 50:5). The word translated though in the KJV and ASV is best rendered for or because and the guilt is best regarded as that of the Chaldeans and not the Israelites.