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“I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done against Zion, declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 51:24

In the last of Jeremiah’s recorded prophecies, the LORD reveals more fully His motivations for overthrowing Babylon. There is much here about how the LORD, “who made the earth by His power,” wants Babylon to know that its idols and gods “are worthless, a work of delusion.” Just as He defeated the Pharaoh and gods of Egypt on their home turf, so the LORD “will punish Bel in Babylon, and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed.”

However, this purpose seems incidental to His primary justification: “Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of the earth.” Therefore He has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for His temple.

Prophecies are not simply a pronouncement of what is to come but are also a statement of the LORD’s heart and character. Consider what we learn about the LORD in these chapters. He has fiercely punished His people, but remains faithful to His covenant with them. Babylon was the LORD’s instrument of judgment; now Babylon itself is judged for its actions against Jerusalem.

It appears, at first glance, that Babylon is being disciplined for doing exactly what the LORD had wanted. There is nothing evident to reconcile these facts. Perhaps that, in itself, is evidence of the LORD’s priorities. His purpose is to be worshipped as the One who established the world by His wisdom, by whose voice there is a tumult in the waters in the heavens. What I want to encourage in you is a spirit of dwelling in the facts as they are presented, another stroke in the portrait of the LORD that the Bible paints.

The final chapter is a postscript recounting the final days of Jerusalem, recorded (judging by the final line of chapter 51) by someone other than Jeremiah. We are reminded of Zedekiah’s failed escape, when, at age 32, he tragically watched as his line ended. We hear of the poor being marched to Babylon, yet receiving their lives as a prize of war, and the poorest inheriting the land as vinedressers and plowmen. The outline of the Temple’s destruction honors the attention to detail that had gone into its design.

But all is not lost. As at the end of Kings, in the thirty-seventh year of [his] exile, Jehoiachin, king of Judah, put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table…

Our verse for this week is Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Jeremiah 51 and 52. Now let’s read it!

Jeremiah 51 - 52

Jehovah says: "Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Lebkamai, a destroying wind. I will send to Babylon strangers, who will winnow her. They will empty her land; for in the day of trouble they will be against her all around. Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow, also against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. Don't spare her young men! Utterly destroy all her army! They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets. For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, by Jehovah of Armies; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. "Flee out of the middle of Babylon! Everyone save his own life! Don't be cut off in her iniquity, for it is the time of Jehovah's vengeance. He will give to her a recompense. Babylon has been a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, who made all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad. Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed! Wail for her! Take balm for her pain. Perhaps she may be healed. "We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let's each go into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. 'Jehovah has produced our righteousness. Come, and let's declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.' "Make the arrows sharp! Hold the shields firmly! Jehovah has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple. Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon! Make the watch strong! Set the watchmen, and prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness. Jehovah of Armies has sworn by himself, saying, 'Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts, and they will lift up a shout against you.' "He has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom. By his understanding he has stretched out the heavens. When he utters his voice, there is a roar of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and brings the wind out of his treasuries. "Every man has become stupid and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image, for his molten images are falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation, they will perish. The portion of Jacob is not like these, for he formed all things, including the tribe of his inheritance. Jehovah of Armies is his name. "You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms. With you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider. With you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein. With you I will break in pieces man and woman. With you I will break in pieces the old man and the youth. With you I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin. With you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock. With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke. With you I will break in pieces governors and deputies. "I will give to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight," says Jehovah. "Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain," says Jehovah, "which destroys all the earth. I will stretch out my hand on you, roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain. They won't take a cornerstone from you, nor a stone for foundations; but you will be desolate forever," says Jehovah. "Set up a standard in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her! Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz! Appoint a marshal against her! Cause the horses to come up as the swarming locusts! Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion! The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant. The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting, they remain in their strongholds. Their might has failed. They have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire. Her bars are broken. 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 every quarter. So the passages are seized. They have burned the reeds with fire. The men of war are frightened." For Jehovah of Armies, the God of Israel says: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden. Yet a little while, and the time of harvest comes for her." "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me. He has crushed me. He has made me an empty vessel. He has, like a monster, swallowed me up. He has filled his mouth with my delicacies. He has cast me out. May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon!" the inhabitant of Zion will say; and, "May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea!" will Jerusalem say. Therefore Jehovah says: "Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry. Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant. They will roar together like young lions. They will growl as lions' cubs. When they are inflamed, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up," says Jehovah. "I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats. "How Sheshach is taken! How the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations! The sea has come up on Babylon. She is covered with the multitude of its waves. Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells. No son of man passes by it. I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up. The nations will not flow any more to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon will fall. "My people, go away from the middle of her, and each of you save yourselves from Jehovah's fierce anger. Don't let your heart faint. Don't fear for the news that will be heard in the land. For news will come one year, and after that in another year news will come, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. Therefore behold, the days come that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babylon; and her whole land will be confounded. All her slain will fall in the middle of her. Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, will sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers will come to her from the north," says Jehovah. "As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so the slain of all the land will fall at Babylon. You who have escaped the sword, go! Don't stand still! Remember Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind." "We are confounded because we have heard reproach. Confusion has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah's house." "Therefore behold, the days come," says Jehovah, "that I will execute judgment on her engraved images; and through all her land the wounded will groan. Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet destroyers will come to her from me," says Jehovah. "The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! For Jehovah lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the great voice! Their waves roar like many waters. The noise of their voice is uttered. For the destroyer has come on her, even on Babylon. Her mighty men are taken. Their bows are broken in pieces, for Jehovah is a God of retribution. He will surely repay. I will make her princes, her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk. They will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up," says the King, whose name is Jehovah of Armies. Jehovah of Armies says: "The wide walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown. Her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples will labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they will be weary." The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was chief quartermaster. Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon. Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words, and say, 'Jehovah, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one will dwell in it, neither man nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever.' It will be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates. Then you shall say, 'Thus will Babylon sink, and will not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; and they will be weary.'" Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign. He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. He did that which was evil in Jehovah's sight, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through Jehovah's anger this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden. Now the Chaldeans were against the city all around. The men of war went toward the Arabah, but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he pronounced judgment on him. The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He also killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death. Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem. He burned Jehovah's house, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire. All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and farmers. The Chaldeans broke the pillars of bronze that were in Jehovah's house and the bases and the bronze sea that were in Jehovah's house in pieces, and carried all of their bronze to Babylon. They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered. The captain of the guard took away the cups, the fire pans, the basins, the pots, the lamp stands, the spoons, and the bowls; that which was of gold, as gold, and that which was of silver, as silver. They took the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which King Solomon had made for Jehovah's house. The bronze of all these vessels was without weight. As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits encircled it; and its thickness was four fingers. It was hollow. A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of bronze. The second pillar also had the same, with pomegranates. There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were one hundred on the network all around. The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold, and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and seven men of those who saw the king's face, who were found in the city; and the scribe of the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the middle of the city. Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land. This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand twenty-three Jews; in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty-two persons; in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty-five people. All the people numbered four thousand six hundred. In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and released him from prison. He spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life. For his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

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