1 Thus says the LORD; "Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against Me (A Massoretic note says this is a cryptogram, meaning "the Chaldeans". See v.41; 25:26), a laying waste wind;
2 And will send to Babylon winnowers, that shall winnow her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.
3 Let not the archer bend his bow, nor let him lift himself up in his coat of mail (i.e. in defense of Babylon): and spare you not her young men; break down you utterly all her host.
4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.
5 For Israel has not been forsaken, nor Judah (now one People again) of his God (Elohim), of the LORD of hosts (see 6:6 and 1 Sam. 1:3); though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. (See Ps. 71:22.)
D5 H 6. Injunction to flee from her.
J q 7. Idolatry . [Symbolic.]
r 8,9-. Fall.
H -9,10. Injunction to forsake her.
J r 11-16. Fall.
q 17,18. Idolatry. [Literal.]
6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity (put for the judgment brought down by it. Cp. Rev. 18:4); for this is the time of the LORD'S (Yehovah's) vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken (cp. Rev. 17:4): the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and broken down (this must refer to a future fulfillment, for the present condition came gradually. See Isa. 21:9; 47:9,11. Cp. Rev. 14:8; 18;8,10,17,19): howl for her; fetch balsam for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
9 We (note this remarkable pronoun) would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country:
for her judgment reaches to heaven, and mounts even to the skies.
10 The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes (in the person of Cyrus and others. Here the then immediate calamity is referred to): for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the avengement of His temple.
12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD has both devised and done that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O you that dwell upon many waters (cp. v.42, and 50:38; also Rev. 17:1,13), abundant in treasures, your end is come, and the measure of your covetousness.
14 The LORD of hosts has sworn by His soul, saying, "Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts (cp. Joel 2:2. Nah. 3:15); and they (i.e. the assailants) shall lift up a shout against you."
15 He has made the earth by His power (see Gen. 1. Cp. 10:12,&c. vv.15-19 are repeated from 10:12-16), He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by His understanding.
16 When He utters His voice, there is a noise of waters in the heavens; and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth: He makes lightnings with rain (cp. 10;13), and brings forth the wind out of His treasures.
17 Every man is become too brutish to know; every founder is put to shame by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
18 They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation (see 8:12) they shall perish.
19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is His name.
D6 s1 20-24. Invasion. Battle-axe.
t1 25,26. Desolation.
s2 27-29-. Invasion. Standard.
t2 -29. Desolation.
s3 30-32. Invasion. Unassisted.
t3 33. Desolation.
20 You art My battle axe (or, My hammer, i.e. Cyrus) and weapons of war: for with you will I beat down the nations, and with you will I destroy kingdoms;
21 And with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I beat down the chariot and his rider;
22 With you also will I beat down man and woman; and with you will I beat down old and young; and with you will I beat down the young man and the maid;
23 I will also beat down with you the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I beat down the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with you will I beat down captains and rulers.
24 And I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says the LORD.
25 Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says the LORD, which destroys all the earth: and I will stretch out My hand upon you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain.
26 And they shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever (this again must refer to a future fulfillment. The 2 destructions are intertwined), says the LORD."
27 Set you up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, set apart (or sanctify) the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni (frequently mentioned in the inscriptions, the Assyrians having been compelled to quell revolts there), and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain (= muster-master or marshal, like the Assyrian dupsarru, a tablet-writer) against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough locusts.
28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, and the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,
to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. (This must be yet future.)
30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might has failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling-places; her bars are broken.
31 One runner shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at each end, (Herodotus says the Babylonians retired to the city, and "remained in their holds". Cyrus, having turned the waters of the Euphrates, entered the city, by the bed of the river, at each end. Cp. Dan. 5:3,4,23,30. This passage, therefore, belongs to the past fulfillment; while others still await a future fulfillment.)
32 And that the fords are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.
33 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come."
E6 K 34,35. Babylon. Zion's incrimination of.
L 36-38. Zion. Yahaveh's advocacy of.
M 39. Babylon made drunk.
N 40-43. Inundation.
K 44. Babylon. Yahaveh's judgment of.
L 45-56. Zion. Yahaveh's avengement of.
M 57. Babylon made drunk.
N 58. Conflagration.
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 dragon, he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has cast me out.
35 "The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon," shall the inhabitress of Zion say; "and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea," shall Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus says the LORD; "Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea (referring to the act of Cyrus. Cp. v.31), and make her springs dry.
37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. (This carries us on to the future again. Cp. 1 Pet. 5:13.)
38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell (or shake themselves) as lions' whelps.
39 In their heat I will make their banquets, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the LORD.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
41 How is Sheshach (see 25:26) taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwells (still future), neither does any son of man pass thereby.
44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more to him: yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall. (Recently laid bare by excavations.)
L u 45,46. Command to go forth from Babylon.
v 47-49. Judgments on images.
u 50,51. Command to go forth from Babylon.
v 52-56. Judgments on images
45 My people, go you out of the midst of her, and deliver you every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. (Divide and separate yourself from Babylon. If you aren't with the Father, you are against Him.)
46 And lest your heart faint, and you fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land; a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. (In other words, in the 3rd year its going to happen. Students of the Word know the reign of antichrist has been shortened to 5 months. Then Jesus returns.)
47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will visit upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. (It is written, it will come to pass. Watch and observe.)
48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein (cp. Rev. 19:1-3), shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come to her from the north, says the LORD. (We know from the Book of Revelation it is the merchants of deception and false teaching that lament for Babylon.)
49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. (cp. Isa. 14:16,17.)
50 You that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind." (Watch Jerusalem. It is the barometer of the end times.)
51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house.
52 "Wherefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven (cp. Isa. 14;12-15), and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come to her, says the LORD." (It doesn't matter how Babylon fortifies herself, the spoilers God sends will be unstoppable. God wins!)
54 A sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: (Here the prophecy switches to the land. The land of Babylon, which is Iraq, has seen a lot of destruction, and we have lost a lot of troops there in recent years.)
55 Because the LORD has spoiled Babylon, and caused to perish out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered: (Babylon is going down. Don't go down with her. Divide yourself from her. Yoke yourself with Jesus Christ, not with the heathen of Babylon.)
56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for God (El) of recompenses, the Lord shall surely requite.
57 "And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake," 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; and the peoples shall labor in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall faint."
B w 59,60. The book sent.
x 61. Reading begun.
y 62. Words spoken.
x 63-. Reading ended.
w -63,64-. The book sunk.
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah (the brother of Baruch [32:12. Cp. 45:1]) the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign (probably to renew his oath of allegiance. Cp. 27:1;8:1). And this Seraiah was a quiet prince. (Probably chief chamberlain. Probably his office was to prepare the night's camping place during the journeys to Babylon.)
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a scroll all the calamity that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you come to Babylon, then shall you look out and read all these words;
62 Then shall you say, 'O LORD, You have spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be an age-abiding desolation.' (Showing that this prophecy must wait a future fulfillment.)
63 And it shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book,
that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:
64 And you shall say, 'Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the calamity that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary.' "
Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.