Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary
Select a resource above

50. Message About Babylon

1 This is the word the LORD spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians Or Chaldeans; also in verses 8, 25, 35 and 45:

    2 “Announce and proclaim among the nations,
   lift up a banner and proclaim it;
   keep nothing back, but say,
‘Babylon will be captured;
   Bel will be put to shame,
   Marduk filled with terror.
Her images will be put to shame
   and her idols filled with terror.’
3 A nation from the north will attack her
   and lay waste her land.
No one will live in it;
   both people and animals will flee away.

    4 “In those days, at that time,”
   declares the LORD,
“the people of Israel and the people of Judah together
   will go in tears to seek the LORD their God.
5 They will ask the way to Zion
   and turn their faces toward it.
They will come and bind themselves to the LORD
   in an everlasting covenant
   that will not be forgotten.

    6 “My people have been lost sheep;
   their shepherds have led them astray
   and caused them to roam on the mountains.
They wandered over mountain and hill
   and forgot their own resting place.
7 Whoever found them devoured them;
   their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty,
for they sinned against the LORD, their verdant pasture,
   the LORD, the hope of their ancestors.’

    8 “Flee out of Babylon;
   leave the land of the Babylonians,
   and be like the goats that lead the flock.
9 For I will stir up and bring against Babylon
   an alliance of great nations from the land of the north.
They will take up their positions against her,
   and from the north she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like skilled warriors
   who do not return empty-handed.
10 So Babylonia Or Chaldea will be plundered;
   all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the LORD.

    11 “Because you rejoice and are glad,
   you who pillage my inheritance,
because you frolic like a heifer threshing grain
   and neigh like stallions,
12 your mother will be greatly ashamed;
   she who gave you birth will be disgraced.
She will be the least of the nations—
   a wilderness, a dry land, a desert.
13 Because of the LORD’s anger she will not be inhabited
   but will be completely desolate.
All who pass Babylon will be appalled;
   they will scoff because of all her wounds.

    14 “Take up your positions around Babylon,
   all you who draw the bow.
Shoot at her! Spare no arrows,
   for she has sinned against the LORD.
15 Shout against her on every side!
   She surrenders, her towers fall,
   her walls are torn down.
Since this is the vengeance of the LORD,
   take vengeance on her;
   do to her as she has done to others.
16 Cut off from Babylon the sower,
   and the reaper with his sickle at harvest.
Because of the sword of the oppressor
   let everyone return to their own people,
   let everyone flee to their own land.

    17 “Israel is a scattered flock
   that lions have chased away.
The first to devour them
   was the king of Assyria;
the last to crush their bones
   was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”

    18 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says:

   “I will punish the king of Babylon and his land
   as I punished the king of Assyria.
19 But I will bring Israel back to their own pasture,
   and they will graze on Carmel and Bashan;
their appetite will be satisfied
   on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.
20 In those days, at that time,”
   declares the LORD,
“search will be made for Israel’s guilt,
   but there will be none,
and for the sins of Judah,
   but none will be found,
   for I will forgive the remnant I spare.

    21 “Attack the land of Merathaim
   and those who live in Pekod.
Pursue, kill and completely destroy The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the LORD, often by totally destroying them; also in verse 26. them,” declares the LORD.
   “Do everything I have commanded you.
22 The noise of battle is in the land,
   the noise of great destruction!
23 How broken and shattered
   is the hammer of the whole earth!
How desolate is Babylon
   among the nations!
24 I set a trap for you, Babylon,
   and you were caught before you knew it;
you were found and captured
   because you opposed the LORD.
25 The LORD has opened his arsenal
   and brought out the weapons of his wrath,
for the Sovereign LORD Almighty has work to do
   in the land of the Babylonians.
26 Come against her from afar.
   Break open her granaries;
   pile her up like heaps of grain.
Completely destroy her
   and leave her no remnant.
27 Kill all her young bulls;
   let them go down to the slaughter!
Woe to them! For their day has come,
   the time for them to be punished.
28 Listen to the fugitives and refugees from Babylon
   declaring in Zion
how the LORD our God has taken vengeance,
   vengeance for his temple.

    29 “Summon archers against Babylon,
   all those who draw the bow.
Encamp all around her;
   let no one escape.
Repay her for her deeds;
   do to her as she has done.
For she has defied the LORD,
   the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets;
   all her soldiers will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD.
31 “See, I am against you, you arrogant one,”
   declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty,
“for your day has come,
   the time for you to be punished.
32 The arrogant one will stumble and fall
   and no one will help her up;
I will kindle a fire in her towns
   that will consume all who are around her.”

    33 This is what the LORD Almighty says:

   “The people of Israel are oppressed,
   and the people of Judah as well.
All their captors hold them fast,
   refusing to let them go.
34 Yet their Redeemer is strong;
   the LORD Almighty is his name.
He will vigorously defend their cause
   so that he may bring rest to their land,
   but unrest to those who live in Babylon.

    35 “A sword against the Babylonians!”
   declares the LORD—
“against those who live in Babylon
   and against her officials and wise men!
36 A sword against her false prophets!
   They will become fools.
A sword against her warriors!
   They will be filled with terror.
37 A sword against her horses and chariots
   and all the foreigners in her ranks!
   They will become weaklings.
A sword against her treasures!
   They will be plundered.
38 A drought on Or A sword against her waters!
   They will dry up.
For it is a land of idols,
   idols that will go mad with terror.

    39 “So desert creatures and hyenas will live there,
   and there the owl will dwell.
It will never again be inhabited
   or lived in from generation to generation.
40 As I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
   along with their neighboring towns,” declares the LORD,
“so no one will live there;
   no people will dwell in it.

    41 “Look! An army is coming from the north;
   a great nation and many kings
   are being stirred up from the ends of the earth.
42 They are armed with bows and spears;
   they are cruel and without mercy.
They sound like the roaring sea
   as they ride on their horses;
they come like men in battle formation
   to attack you, Daughter Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon has heard reports about them,
   and his hands hang limp.
Anguish has gripped him,
   pain like that of a woman in labor.
44 Like a lion coming up from Jordan’s thickets
   to a rich pastureland,
I will chase Babylon from its land in an instant.
   Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this?
Who is like me and who can challenge me?
   And what shepherd can stand against me?”

    45 Therefore, hear what the LORD has planned against Babylon,
   what he has purposed against the land of the Babylonians:
The young of the flock will be dragged away;
   their pasture will be appalled at their fate.
46 At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will tremble;
   its cry will resound among the nations.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

As I have already said, the Prophet now shows the primary cause why God purposed to deal so kindly and mercifully with his people, even because he would remit their sins. And doubtless whatever is said of the remission of sins is cold and unmeaning, except we be first convinced that God is reconciled and propitious to us. The unbelieving indeed seek no other thing than to be relieved from their evils, as the sick who require nothing from their physician but that he should immediately remove pain. If the sick man thirsts, “Take away thirst,” he will say. In short, they regard only the symptom, of the disease they do not say a word. Such is the case with the ungodly, they neglect the chief thing, that God should pardon them and receive them into favor. Provided they are exempted from punishment, this is enough for them. But as to the faithful, they can never be satisfied until they feel assured that God is propitious to them. In order, then, to free from disquietude and all misgivings the minds of the godly, our Prophet says that God would be propitious, so that he would bury all the sins of Israel and Judah, so that they might no more be remembered or come to judgment.

This passage is remarkable, and from it we especially learn this valuable truth, that when God severely chastises us, we ought not to stop at the punishment and seek only a relief from our troubles, but on the contrary we ought to look to the very cause of all evils, even our sins. So David, in many places, when he seeks from God a relaxation of evil, does not only say, “Lord, deliver me from mine enemies; Lord, restore to me my health; Lord, deliver me from death;” — he does not simply speak thus, but he earnestly flees to God and implores his mercy. And on the other hand, when God promises deliverance from punishment, he does not simply say, “I will restore you from exile or captivity, I will restore you to your own country;” but he says, “I will forgive you your sins.” For when the disease is removed, the symptoms also which accompany the disease disappear. So also it happens in this case, for when God shows that he is propitious to us, we are then freed from punishment, that is, what we have for a time suffered, or what awaited us, had not God spared us according to his infinite mercy and goodness. 6262     The idea of this verse is rightly given in these words: the punishment for iniquity and sins would not be exacted, because God would pardon the remnant; hence they appeared not. The removal of punishment, the restoration from exile, would shew that iniquity and sins no longer existed, God having fully pardoned them, and thus obliterated them.
   The iniquity of Israel was false worship, the worship of the calves, and the sins of Judah were especially idolatry and the rejection of God’s messages by his prophets. For these evils more particularly they were banished, and their exile proved a remedy for them, as they never afterwards fell into these sins. — Ed.

VIEWNAME is study