Jeremiah 51:11-26

D. Divine Destruction Jeremiah 51:11-26

TRANSLATION

(11) Polish the arrows! Fill the shields! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the king of the Medes; for His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it. For it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of His Temple. (12) Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon! Make the watch strong! Set the guard! Prepare the ambushments! For the LORD has purposed and done that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. (13) O you who dwells beside many waters, abundant in treasure, your end has come, the measure of your gain. (14) The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself: Surely I will fill you with men as with locusts and they shall lift up a shout over you. (15) He who made the earth in His strength, and established the world in His wisdom, and in His understanding spread out the heavens, (16) when He utters His voice there is a noise of waters in the heavens, and He causes vapors to arise from the end of the earth; He creates lightenings for the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouse. (17) Every man is stupid, without knowledge! Every refiner is put to shame because of his image, for his graven image is falsehood and there is no spirit in them. (18) They are vanity, a work of delusion! In the time of their punishment they shall perish. (19) The Portion of Jacob is not like these! For He is the former of everything including the tribe of His inheritance. The LORD of hosts is His name! (20) You were My battle axe, My weapons of war! With you I broke nations in pieces, destroyed kingdoms. (21) With you I shattered horses and their riders, chariots and their drivers. (22) With you I shattered man and woman, old man and youth, young man and maiden. (23) With you I shattered shepherd and flock, husbandman and yoke, governors and leaders. (24) But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil that they did in Zion before your eyes (oracle of the LORD). (25) Behold, I am against you, O mountain of destruction (oracle of the LORD) who destroyed all the earth! I will stretch out My hand against you and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burning mountain. (26) And they Shall not take from you a stone for a corner nor a stone for a foundation; but you shall be an everlasting desolation (oracle of the LORD).

COMMENTS

In Jeremiah 51:11 the agents of the divine judgment upon Babylon are identified as the Medes. Media was a country located northwest of Persia. About the year 548 B.C. Cyrus the Great was able to unite the Medes and Persians and together they became the force that toppled the mighty Babylonian empire. The Medo-Persian army was the instrument used by the Lord to execute His vengeance upon Babylon for the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 51:11). The Lord Himself directs the attack against Babylon: Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon! No doubt the standards here are certain military signals which indicated the particular area of the wall which was to be attacked, Make the watch strong! Set the watchmen! The first order of business in any siege in antiquity was to blockade the city to prevent anyone from leaving or entering with supplies. Furthermore, a guard had to be posted about the camp of the besieging army lest the soldiers within the city launch a surprise attack. Prepare the ambushes! These would be small groups of soldiers strategically hidden who would press into the city when the besieged made a rally. The Lord has planned the fall of Babylon and He will execute that plan (Jeremiah 51:12).

The greatest supports of the power of Babylonia were the waters surrounding the city and the great riches which Nebuchadnezzar had accumulated. The fruitfulness of the Babylonian territory, the produce of the fields, depended on the overflowing of the Euphrates. By an extensive system of dams and canals the Babylonians had learned in very ancient times to direct the waters of the Euphrates to every area of the otherwise barren plain region of Mesopotamia. These water-courses also served to drain off marsh areas, to avert the violent inundations for which the Euphrates was notorious, and to provide a system of navigation from one end of the land to the other. The watercourses were also of the greatest importance for the defense of the country. As for the riches of the city, one has only to think of the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar. The immense booty of Nineveh, the plunder of Jerusalem, the tributes of Syria and the Phoenician states filled his coffers. It is no wonder then that the prophet addresses Babylon as the city which dwells on many waters, abundant in treasures. The mighty walls, the great waters, the fertile lands, the enormous wealth, the multitude of inhabitants, all together are helpless before the Lord of Israel who declares to mighty Babylon, Your end has come! Babylon has played her role on the stage of human history and the curtain is about to fall upon the last act of her national existence. The covetousness of Babylon has reached full measure, Her plundering, profiteering, and exorbitant taxation will soon come to an end (Jeremiah 51:13). The Lord of hosts has bound Himself by an oath that the shout (lit., vintage song) would be raised over the fallen city. To lighten their task and express their satisfaction with the yield of the crop, those who tread the grapes to produce the wine would often sing a happy song. The fact that the conquerors of Babylon sing a vintage song over the fallen city indicates that their work of conquest is yielding abundant returns. The phrase surely I will fill you with men as with the cankerworm has been taken by some commentators to refer to the enemy swarming over Babylon like the cankerworm or locust. Others feel that the Hebrew should be translated even if I fill you with men like locust, they shall etc. In this case the meaning would be that the teeming multitudes of Babylon will in no way be able to prevent the destruction of their city.

Lest there be any doubt that the Lord who has sworn to destroy Babylon has the power to make good His oath, Jeremiah inserts at this point a passage which he had used earlier in his ministry. Jeremiah 51:15-19 are all but identical with Jeremiah 10:12-16, the only verbal difference being the omission in Jeremiah 51:19 of the word Israel before the words the rod of His inheritance. The point of the passage is chat mankind and man-made idols are helpless before the Almighty God. Israel's God has created the earth and spread out the heavens (Jeremiah 51:15); He it is that controls the rains and brings the storms (Jeremiah 51:16). In contrast to Him, men are stupid and ignorant. The skillful craftsmen who fashion images and pass them off as gods are perpetrating a gigantic hoax. The idols are lifeless and vain. Those who fashioned them will be utterly ashamed of their creations in the day of God's judgment (Jeremiah 51:17). The idols will be unable to protect themselves in that day let alone their worshipers. In the day of their visitation they shall perish (Jeremiah 51:18). The portion of Jacob i.e., Israel's God, is unlike any of the idols venerated in Babylon. He is Creator of everything including the tribe of His special possession, Israel. It is the God of creation, the God of Israel, the Lord of hosts who has bound Himself by oath to destroy Babylon (Jeremiah 51:19).

After establishing that the Lord is superior to all the gods of Babylon, Jeremiah proceeds to address the conqueror of Babylon: You are my battle axe and weapons of war.[414] Just as God had used Assyria and Babylon as instruments to bring judgment upon nations and upon Israel, so now He will use the Medo-Persian armies to destroy Babylon. No nation or military force will be able to stand before God's battle axe (Jeremiah 51:20-21). The strong as well as the weak, the old as well as the young, the exalted as well as the lowly will all be shattered by the conqueror (Jeremiah 51:22-23). One cannot read these verses without recalling the earlier prophecies of Isaiah concerning Cyrus (Isaiah 45:1). By means of this mighty and powerful army the Lord will recompense Babylon for the maltreatment of the people of God. The Jews held captive in Babylon will have the satisfaction of seeing the requital of their enemy (Jeremiah 51:24).

[414] Some commentators argue that Babylon itself is the hammer of these verses and some even argue that Israel is intended.

The second major section of the Babylon oracle concludes with the Lord declaring His hostility to Babylon: Behold, I am against you,[415] O destroying mountain. The Hebrew expression translated here destroying mountains occurs in 2 Kings 23:13 where it is used of the Mount of Olives and is translated mount of corruption. The Mount of Olives evidently received this appellation because of the idolatrous rites which were performed there. In using this expression of Babylon the prophet may have had in mind the corrupting spiritual and moral influence of that nation as well as her physical destructiveness. The picture here is of an active volcano which belches forth destruction to all the earth. The expression roll you down from the rocks probably refers to a volcanic eruption during which rocks mixed with burning lava are hurled from the crater and stream down the sides of the mountain. After the fiery outburst of divine retribution Babylon will be nothing but a burned-out crater, its power for evil completely exhausted (Jeremiah 51:25). So completely burned-out is that mountain that its stones are no longer fit for building material. Babylon will never again serve as the seat of an empire; her position as first city of the world is completely shattered; her glory is gone forever. Babylon will be forever desolate (Jeremiah 51:26).

[415] This challenge formula occurs earlier in Jeremiah 21:13, Jeremiah 23:30-32, and 60:31.