‏ Jeremiah 50

Summary for Jer 50:1-16: 50:1–51:64  ^a This message of judgment on Babylon is the longest for any nation except Judah, and threats against Babylon are interwoven with promises for Judah’s restoration. Babylon was the Lord’s agent for destroying the other civilizations of the Near East, but it was also guilty of its own sins. The Lord would judge Babylon by doing to her what she had done to others (50:15  ^b).
50:2  ^c Raising a signal flag was a favored method for warning that an enemy was approaching a city (cp. Isa 13:2  ^d).

• The people of Babylon would be under divine judgment because they worshiped the gods Bel (the Babylonian name for Baal) and Marduk (the Babylonian deity of wind, storm, and fertility).
50:3  ^e The nation ... from the north was the Persian nation led by Cyrus in 539 BC. Persia was east of Babylon, but it first struck Babylonia in the north and then moved south. The attack destroyed the powerful Babylonian Empire.
Summary for Jer 50:4-10: 50:4-10  ^f This poetic interlude was a message of hope for the Israelite exiles in Babylon in contrast to the judgment and oppression they had been experiencing. The divine Judge is also the divine Savior. 50:4  ^g In those coming days: In 538, 458, and 445 BC, some exiles of Israel moved back to their homeland.

• The people of Israel and Judah would come weeping with joy and repentance, choosing to worship the Lord their God instead of worshiping idols.
50:5  ^h an eternal covenant: See 31:23-34  ⁱ.
50:6  ^j The shepherds of Israel and Judah, such as Jeroboam I and Manasseh (see 1 Kgs 12:25–13:34  ^k; 2 Kgs 21:1-18  ^l), had led the people away from the Lord.

• The mountains were both literal and metaphorical—Baal worship tended to take place at high elevations.
50:7  ^m This verse continues the metaphor of lost sheep (50:6  ⁿ), connecting Israel’s vulnerability to attack with their apostasy in turning away from the Lord. Their enemies rationalized their mistreatment of Israel by saying that the Israelites had sinned against the Lord. These enemies understood that the Israelites’ true place of rest and hope was in the Lord.
Summary for Jer 50:8-9: 50:8-9  ^o The Lord urged the Israelites to leave when he ordered an army of great nations (Persia and its allies) to attack Babylon in 539 BC.
Summary for Jer 50:11-16: 50:11-16  ^p These verses describe in vivid detail the defeat of Babylon by the Persian invasion (see ch 51  ^q; Isa 13:14  ^r; 21:1-10  ^s; 44:28  ^t; 47:1-5  ^u; Dan 5  ^v). Babylon was never an important kingdom again. The city of Babylon was leveled in 485 BC. Archaeological excavation of Babylon began in 1899, and the remains of Babylon were brought to light over several decades. 50:11  ^w rejoice ... frisk about: The Babylonians had been light-hearted and carefree because they had plundered the Lord’s people in Jerusalem. They gave no thought to the well-being of those they conquered.
50:12  ^x The divine Judge rendered his verdict, describing the disgrace of a defeated Babylon.
50:14  ^y The Lord ordered armies to attack Babylon with a multitude of arrows, the artillery of that age.

• she has sinned against the Lord: The primary charge leveled against other nations was also directed toward Babylon.
50:15  ^z The Lord’s judgment was fulfilled when Babylon surrendered and her walls fell. The Lord’s vengeance carried out justice by doing to Babylon what she had done to others (cp. Deut 19:21  ^aa; Luke 6:38  ^ab).
50:16  ^ac As Babylon fell, farmers fled and left their crops behind. The slaughter on the battlefield caused the people to run away.
Summary for Jer 50:17-20: 50:17-20  ^ad Another poetic interlude laments Israel’s sufferings and promises future restoration. 50:17  ^ae Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 734–722 BC, and Nebuchadnezzar conquered the southern kingdom of Judah in 605–586 BC.
Summary for Jer 50:18-19: 50:18-19  ^af Therefore: This word introduces two divine decrees. The first decree condemned Babylon to complete annihilation, like the punishment the Lord gave Assyria (Nah 3  ^ag). Assyria fell in 612 BC; Babylon fell in 539 BC.

• I will bring Israel home: The second divine decree promises restoration for Israel, specifically the people of the northern tribes, whose land was defined by the indicated landmarks.

• Carmel is a mountain range close to the Mediterranean Sea in the northwestern corner of Israel.

• Bashan was a region in the highlands rising east of the Sea of Galilee.

• The tribe of Ephraim occupied the hill country in the central part of Israel west of the Jordan River.

• Gilead was a highland area that rose on the east side of the Jordan River, opposite Ephraim.
50:20  ^ah The Lord would forgive the remnant of people from Israel and Judah; they would seek the Lord as they returned to their homeland (50:4-5  ^ai; see chs 31  ^aj, 33  ^ak).
50:21  ^al The judgments against Babylon continue. The divine Judge is also portrayed as the divine commander of the armies. The Persians were the Lord’s warriors against Babylon, just as Babylon had been his warriors against Judah (25:9  ^am).

• Merathaim (literally double rebellion) refers to the southern part of the Tigris and Euphrates river valley. Pekod (literally punishment) designates a people living on the eastern side of the same valley. These people were Babylonian.

• completely destroy: See Lev 27:28-29  ^an; Josh 6:21  ^ao; 1 Sam 15:3  ^ap.
50:28  ^aq The exiles returning to Jerusalem would be able to encourage those left behind that the enemy had been punished as God had promised and that his promised restoration of Israel was beginning.
Summary for Jer 50:29-30: 50:29-30  ^ar Skilled archers would kill the Babylonian soldiers even as those soldiers had killed their victims in battle. This was the Lord’s way of judging the ruthless empire builders who had defied the one true God by worshiping other deities (50:38  ^as).
Summary for Jer 50:31-32: 50:31-32  ^at Because of the Lord’s decree, the arrogant Babylonian Empire would never rise again as a mighty power in the world.
Summary for Jer 50:33-34: 50:33-34  ^au The people of Israel and Judah had suffered greatly. The Lord’s act of redemption would defend them and give them rest again in Israel. God is strong, and he is as able to redeem as he is to punish.
Summary for Jer 50:35-38: 50:35-38  ^av Babylon would experience exactly the kind of violence it had meted out. The same charges were brought against Babylon as were brought against Israel, Judah, Egypt, and their neighbors. All of them worshiped idols instead of the one true God.

• The sword of destruction refers to the Persian army.
50:38  ^aw The Euphrates River ran through the city of Babylon, providing its water supply. The Persians were reputed to have diverted the river during the siege by digging a canal around the city walls and then attacking through the riverbed.
Summary for Jer 50:39-40: 50:39-40  ^ax The doom of Babylon would be like the utter desolation of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24-25  ^ay).
50:43  ^az The Babylonians would experience the same terror their own victims had felt (cp. 6:22-23  ^ba).
Summary for Jer 50:44-46: 50:44-46  ^bb These verses essentially repeat 49:19-21  ^bc, with Babylon in place of Edom.

‏ Jeremiah 51

Summary for Jer 51:1-2: 51:1-2  ^bd The destroyer selected by the Lord was Persia, led by Cyrus, who came against Babylon in 539 BC.
Summary for Jer 51:3-4: 51:3-4  ^be God took the role of commander and ordered the destroyer to wipe out the Babylonians.

• completely destroyed: See Lev 27:28-29  ^bf; 1 Sam 15:3  ^bg.
51:5  ^bh Although the Israelites had committed many sins against the Holy One, he was still their God, and he planned to save them.
51:6  ^bi The Israelites were urged to flee from Babylon at the appropriate time to avoid being caught up in the Lord’s vengeance against Babylon (cp. 50:8  ^bj).
51:7  ^bk Babylon had been a gold cup, a vessel of unusual power and wealth that the Lord had used for a time to rule every nation in the ancient Near East.

• The nations drank Babylon’s wine: All those nations had suffered greatly under Babylon’s heavy hand.
51:8  ^bl Jeremiah foresaw the collapse of the Babylonian Empire. Although the Lord was carrying out justice, the event called for mourning.
Summary for Jer 51:9-10: 51:9-10  ^bm Nothing could save Babylon; her punishment could not be measured. After Babylon collapsed, it would be time for the exiles to return home, where they could tell others of God’s wonderful acts on their behalf.
Summary for Jer 51:11-12: 51:11-12  ^bn The kings of the Medes included Cyrus, who marched against Babylon and overthrew it in 539 BC.
Summary for Jer 51:15-19: 51:15-19  ^bo This anthem of praise affirms the Lord’s uniqueness and majesty. It contrasts the reality of the one true God with the emptiness of idols.
Summary for Jer 51:15-16: 51:15-16  ^bp As the Creator and preserver of all things, God, not Baal, controls the storm with its thunder, rain, lightning, and wind. The Lord can use these forces whenever he desires.
51:20  ^bq You: The Lord had chosen and empowered King Cyrus of Persia to turn the Babylonian Empire to dust.
Summary for Jer 51:27-28: 51:27-28  ^br Ararat was the mountainous region north of Babylon.

• Ashkenaz was Noah’s great-grandson through Japheth and Gomer (Gen 10:2-3  ^bs); his descendants probably lived in Ararat, as did the people of Minni, who are otherwise unknown.
Summary for Jer 51:29-30: 51:29-30  ^bt The terrible fall of Babylon happened just as the Lord had planned. The Babylonian soldiers lost all desire to fight, and the Persian invaders quickly penetrated the city walls.
51:31  ^bu This king was Nabonidus; at the time, he was at Borsippa, north of Babylon. His son Belshazzar was regent in Babylon. See Dan 5:1-30  ^bv.
51:33  ^bw The wealth of the city was likened to wheat on a threshing floor; the looting of Babylon was like a harvest.
51:35  ^bx Make Babylon suffer as she made us suffer: See thematic note for Prayers for Vengeance at end of chapter.
51:36  ^by I will be your lawyer: In response to the people’s request (51:35  ^bz), the Lord would prosecute Babylon for its brutal sins.
51:37  ^ca The looting of the city and the damage to its structures would inspire contempt rather than awe in its visitors.
Summary for Jer 51:38-40: 51:38-40  ^cb The Lord proclaimed that he would use wine to turn the lion that once terrorized and destroyed nations (5:6  ^cc; 25:38  ^cd; 49:19  ^ce) into an easily subdued lamb. Wine as an instrument of wrath was usually figurative (25:15-29  ^cf), but here it was literal (see Dan 5  ^cg).
51:42  ^ch The sea represents the armies that overwhelmed Babylon. The crashing waves symbolize the assault against the city.
51:44  ^ci The defeat of its chief deity, Bel, was the ultimate disaster for Babylon. This idol’s lavish adornments would be taken away, and its supposed power would be exposed as a monumental fraud.
Summary for Jer 51:45-53: 51:45-53  ^cj The Lord was concerned about the spiritual and physical well-being of the Jewish exiles in Babylon, where their political situation was perilous. The Lord pointed to the future, when the exiles would be redeemed from disgrace and return with great joy to live in their own land. 51:45  ^ck As the Lord described the terrors of his angry judgment against Babylon,, he pointed his people to their homeland to assure them of their safety.
51:46  ^cl Violence will erupt: As an enemy army headed toward Babylon, the leaders inside the city were blaming each other. Vicious in-fighting was tearing Babylon apart.
Summary for Jer 51:47-48: 51:47-48  ^cm The Lord’s punishment of Babylon would cause the heavens and earth to rejoice at this display of God’s justice.
Summary for Jer 51:49-50: 51:49-50  ^cn Babylon’s penalty would match the brutality it had poured out on the Israelites and other nations.
51:51  ^co The exiled people carried a heavy load of shame and disgrace for their past sins. The Lord’s Temple was defiled when the Babylonians destroyed it in 586 BC.
51:52  ^cp Yes: The Lord agreed with his people that their past was shameful, but he gave them hope for the future when Babylon’s power would be broken.
51:53  ^cq Babylon’s fortifications could not protect it; the city would certainly be plundered, for the Lord had spoken and decreed their punishment.
51:54  ^cr As Babylon was destroyed, the din of battle would be overwhelming. People would scream and yell, soldiers would shout their battle cries, and boulders would crash against each other as walls were torn down.
Summary for Jer 51:55-56: 51:55-56  ^cs The destruction of Babylon was not a historical accident—the Lord was in control and would bring it to pass.

• The noise (51:54  ^ct) would dissolve into the silence of death. The invading army would kill or capture the Babylonian soldiers, and the population would flee into the countryside.
51:57  ^cu Belshazzar, the ruler of the city, and his officers had a feast at which drunkenness was dominant; it ended in their death (Dan 5  ^cv).
Summary for Jer 51:59-64: 51:59-64  ^cw Just as Babylon had destroyed Jerusalem, this great kingdom would itself be destroyed. This passage contains a message sent to Babylon seven years before the fall of Jerusalem. 51:59  ^cx King Zedekiah made a trip to Babylon to build trust between himself and Nebuchadnezzar. It was probably during this visit that Zedekiah swore an oath of loyalty to the Babylonian king (2 Chr 36:13  ^cy).
Summary for Jer 51:63-64: 51:63-64  ^cz Throwing the scroll ... into the Euphrates River signaled the permanent destruction of Babylon.

Thematic note: Prayers for Vengeance
The psalmists sometimes asked the Lord to execute vengeance against their adversaries. It was not unusual for a psalmist to pray for the violent destruction of their enemies as a manifestation of God’s justice. How can this kind of prayer be okay?
These prayers for the destruction of the wicked arose out of concern for justice and righteousness and out of confidence in God. Divine justice is defined in Psalm 1:6  ^da: The Lord loves the righteous and destroys the wicked. The wicked are subversive, corrupt, and thoroughly committed to evil; they live in opposition to God and to everything that God does. The wicked shake the foundations of ethics, of society, and of God’s kingdom. The psalmists argued that evil is inconsistent with God’s nature and that the removal of evil is the only way for his kingdom to thrive. However, the poets of Israel did not simply invoke God’s judgment on anyone with whom they could not get along. Instead, the psalmists were guided by God’s standards of justice and righteousness, to which God holds all humans accountable.
The psalmists were intimately acquainted with grief. They had suffered and been oppressed and marginalized by bullies, leaders, and kings from inside and outside of Israel. Their prayers were full of faith and hope, asking how long the Lord would tolerate their suffering and confessing that the Lord alone could rescue them from evil. They expressed deep longing for his redemption. By the principle of retribution, they asked the Lord to inflict upon the wicked the suffering that they had endured (Ps 5:10  ^db; 6:10  ^dc; 7:9  ^dd; 9:19-20  ^de; 28:4  ^df; 56:7  ^dg; 104:35  ^dh; 137:7-9  ^di; 139:19  ^dj). Through these prayers for justice and vindication, the godly may rest in peace as they await God’s rescue.
Do we truly see evil as evil, or do we perceive it merely as an inconvenience? Prayers for the end of evil are appropriate as long as we recognize God as arbiter, judge, and executor. The prayer for the coming of God’s Kingdom implies the removal of evil. But now the cruelty inflicted on the wicked has been transformed through the cruel crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This act of God informs how we pray for those who oppose us. Jesus will indeed judge and bring an ultimate end to evil (see Rev 19:11-21  ^dk), but while Christians await that final judgment, they are to love as Christ loved (John 13:34  ^dl), pray for their enemies, and forgive them (Matt 5:38-48  ^dm; Col 3:13  ^dn).


Passages for Further Study
2 Chr 24:22  ^do; Neh 4:5  ^dp; Pss 3:7  ^dq; 9:19-20  ^dr; 10:15  ^ds; 12:3  ^dt; 41:10  ^du; 55:15  ^dv; 69:22-28  ^dw; 79:6  ^dx; 109:6-20  ^dy; 110:5-6  ^dz; 137:1-9  ^ea; Isa 61:2  ^eb; Jer 11:20-23  ^ec; 18:19-23  ^ed; 51:35  ^ee; Lam 1:22  ^ef; 3:64-66  ^eg; Acts 1:20  ^eh; Rom 11:9-10  ^ei; Rev 6:10  ^ej