CHAPTER 50
Against Babylon
€ THE word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet." The long and vehement denunciation that occupies the last two chapters has been supposed by some not to belong to Jeremiah at all; or at the best to be a later compilation from his writings.
This is the view of German criticism which has been largely adopted by English churchmen. But mere literary criticism and analysis leads nowhere; while, on the other hand, the comparison of the prophecy with the utterances of the other prophets leads to the conclusion that this is indeed "the word that the Lord spake... by Jeremiah the prophet".
In support of this view it is pointed out that the superscription definitely proclaims this, as also does the appended history in ch. 51: 59-64. Further, as the Speaker's Commentary points out, there is "the fact that the author was living at Jerusalem. This appears from ch. 50: 5, 'They shall ask their way to Zion with their faces hithenvard'. How certainly any one not living at Jerusalem would have said thitherward is shown by our translators having actually so rendered it in the A.V. One little undesigned touch like this is more convincing than elaborate arguments".
And there are other matters which we do not now stop to consider. In the R.V. margin it will be seen that thitherward in the text is annotated in the margin with the note: Heb. hitherward.
''The word of the Lord'' was proclaimed against Babylon by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk and Daniel, all of whom have much to say about "the burden of Babylon". The weapons of God's warfare against Babylon were declared beforehand by the prophets to be His "sanctified ones", the Medes and Persians. Their victorious com mander was named Cyrus by God nearly two hundred years before his birth (Isa. 45). The prophet saw beforehand (ch. 14) Lucifer's fall from heaven. He saw (ch. 21) the night of pleasure that was turned into fear and destruction. The river of Babylon in which she boasted, Jeremiah (ch. 51) saw dried up, and made the channel of attack. The brazen gates Isaiah (ch. 45) declared God would open before Cyrus. In Isaiah (ch. 46) and Jeremiah (ch. 52), Bel, Nebo and Merodach, like the gods of Egypt before them, were exhibited as the subjects of divine judgment and contempt. The astrologers (Isa. 47) are challenged and and disgraced.
The origin and characteristics of Babylon, as revealed in the book of Genesis, have been considered at some length in The Ministry of the Prophets: Isaiah; it may suffice to repeat here that the name Babel, or its Greek equivalent Babylon, stands for confusion and memorializes the confusion of tongues; that Amraphel king of Shinar was among the kings defeated by Abraham after their taking of Sodom; and that a Chaldean matrimonial alliance for Isaac was forbidden by Abraham. In short, Babylon was an alien world, and after the call of Abraham, it was only because of their sins that his seed were brought back thither in captivity. Jeremiah emphasizes this, and tells of Israel's restoration, and ultimately of his "everlasting salvation", as does Isaiah.
Jeremiah (ch. 50: 2) like Isaiah (ch. 46) denounces judgments against Bel and Merodach. Their "images" and some of the legends concerning them have come down to our own times. Thus from a broken cylinder of Cyrus from Babylon we read of his re-establishment of the gods of Babylon: €
"The gods of the land of Shinar and Accad... in their own shrines I made inhabit (again), a dwelling of heart's delight. May all the gods whom I brought (again) into their own cities, daily before Bel and Nebo, speak of length of days for me! May they utter words in my favour, and to Merodach, my Lord, let them say, Cyrus the king that feareth thee and Cambyses his son... made them dwell in a quiet habitation." € Light from the East, p. 225.
But the gods of Babylon were doomed, and the taking "I Babylon by Cyrus was but the signal for the restoration of Israel, and ultimately of his "everlasting salvation".
€ In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and hall seek the Lord their God. They shall enquire concerning Zion with their faces thitherward (margin, Heb. hitherward) saying, Come ye and join yourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten" - R.V.
Here it will be observed, in addition to the substitution of hiherward for thitherward, that the word saying, both in the A.V. and R.V. is in italics; and it would appear, that the following words are those of God by the prophet rather than those of Israel. They appear to be like the gracious invitation of Isa. 55: 3, " Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, arid your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David".
Jeremiah lamented that the lost sheep of the house of Israel had been caused to stray by their own shepherds; and that it was through that fact that their adversaries who devoured them said, "We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the Lord the hope of their fathers" (verse 7). God had said, "Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend: evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord" (ch. 2: 3). But now Israel was not "holiness". And the € devouring" was justified by the devourer. Was he any better than Israel? The question troubled Habakkuk. Humbly admitting that God had ordained them for judgment, he nevertheless expostulated with God concerning "the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation", saying. "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity; wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? "God answered Habakkuk that the turn of the devourer's judgment should come. And so here to Jeremiah (verse 10), "Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the Lord".
The expression "habitation of justice" here applied to the Lord, is in ch. 31: 23 applied to Jerusalem, and this because of the "new thing" the Lord has created in the earth, "A woman shall compass a man" (verse 22). "As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness".
The "Man" in question, even "The Son of man", similarly couples the "habitation" with God and with the city of God, thus: € "He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and mine own new name" (Rev. 3: 12, K.V.). This is the final "habitation" in "the Father's house", the "eternal home", by contrast with the "long home" of Eccl. 12: 5. This is the "dwelling place" and hope of Moses in his prayer (Psa. 90), according to the revelation of the resur rection of the dead that he received "at the bush" (Exod. 3:6; Luke 20: 37), and concerning which he prayed, "Return, 0 Lord, how long?" This is the divine estate already reached by the Lord Jesus Christ, who "dwelt in the secret place of the Most High, and abides under the shadow of the Almighty". (Psa. 91). Having overcome all temptations, including even the devil-quoted scripture of this psalm, in him is fulfilled the promise of the Almighty, "Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation... because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name".
Because Chaldea had rejoiced over the spoiling of Israel, therefore, said Jeremiah, "Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed" € that is, Babylon. The Metropolis, as the name implies (Gk. mother-city), was always considered as the mother of the people. The usage is found in the Old and New Testaments, as in Hos. 2: 2, "Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not my wife". Also in Ezek. 23 Aholah and Aholibah, representing respectively Samaria and Jerusalem, were the mothers of the peoples of Ephraim and Judah. The new Jerusalem (Isa. 54) is said by Paul (Gal. 4: 25) to be "the mother of us all". While by contrast, and in harmony with Jeremiah's prophecy concerning Babylon, the Apocalyptical antitype is described as "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth ".
The exhortation, "Cut off the sower from Babylon", has been interpreted with reference to the intramural spaces of the great city, for it was supposed that it could grow enough food to support a long siege. But it would appear that the expression is rather to be taken with reference to the country in general, which, like the Nile Delta, is extraordinarily fertile, but which in the course of ages of desolation has degenerated into a wilderness, or " land not sown" (ch. 2:2).
The lions have devoured Israel. "First the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones" (verse 17). The northern kingdom fell first, in the days of Hezekiah, and the remnant of Judah afterwards before Nebuchadnezzar in the days of Zedekiah. The lion of Babel is memorialized upon the monuments, and a wartime photograph from Mesopotamia, some years ago, represented a great stone lion standing over a prostrate human form. 11 might almost have been the symbol of Babylon devouring Israel.
But the lion of Assyria had been overcome, and the lion of Babel was likewise doomed. But "devoured" Israel should be resurrected and restored: € "I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead. In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant" (verses 19-20).
With regard to "Merathaim" and "Pekod" (verse 21), there is probably, as so often elsewhere, a play upon actual place names. The Revised Version margin translates the names, "Double rebellion" and "Visitation" respectively. And the Cambridge Bible, referring to this, says that the names probably denote "the Babylonian Marratim, the land by the nar Marratu (meaning bitter river) in S. Babylonia; and the Pukudu, a people lying east of the Tigris on the borders of Persia".
"How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken ! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!'' (verse 23). The figure is beautiful; but the word of the Lord is a much greater "hammer", as God had declared by Jeremiah (ch. 23: 29), and of which the desolation of Babylon is so striking a witness. And the title is noted in later times of "Charles Martel (Hammer)", who was grandfather of Charles the Great, and conquered the Saracens in a decisive battle at Tours in 732 a.d. Also of Edward I of England, on whose tomb at Westminster Abbey are inscribed the words "Scotorum Malleus". And, coming down to the last tyrant of the latter days, we have the hammer and sickle as the fitting coat of arms of Gog of the land of Magog.
If the Assyrian were "the rod of God's anger" against Israel, so too were the Medes and Persians his "weapons" against Babel. "The Lord hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord God of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans" (verse 25).
''The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance of his temple" (verse 28). Out of the ruin of Babylon arises such a voice. Babylon herself had "a great voice" (ch. 51: 55). The last act of the kingdom had been a public insult of "the Lord our God" and of the vessels of his temple (Dan. 5). A captive of Judah then and there proclaimed "the vengeance", which was executed "that night", and would no doubt after wards be celebrated in Jerusalem.
There follows the intensive proclamation of "a sword upon the Chaldeans" (verses 35-38). In the last of these verses the word "drought" differs only from the word ''sword'' in the Hebrew by the vowel pointing of the Massorites, Hereb being sword, and Horeb drought. The Speaker's Commentary has the following note: € " The consonants are the same, but the Massorites have given the word different vowels because drought seemed a more suitable term for waters. But sword means war, and the stratagem of Cyrus by which the waters of the Euphrates were diverted, and the channel left dry, was the effect not of drought, but of military skill and forethought". But the R.V. retains "drought".
It is further noted by the Speaker's Commentary that there is no verb expressed in these proclamations about the sword, but only implied, and that they would be better read "as a summons from Jehovah, Israel's Goel (Redeemer), to the sword to fall upon all the elements of Babylon's greatness ". It would appear to be like the call of Zech. 13: 7: € "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd"; only in that case the verb "awake" is expressed. The R.V. in the passage in Jeremiah drops the italics of the A.V. (is) and treats the verb as naturally implied. The passage is an illustration of the value of a vowei point.
The prophecies that Babylon should become a habita tion of wild beasts (verse 39) were literally fulfilled by the action of the Persian kings in converting the desolate city into a hunting park. It became literally like "Sodom and Gomorrah".
"Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong, but I will make them suddenly run away from her; and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me? Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord, that he hath taken against Babylon; and purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flocks shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them. At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations" (verses 44-46).
These verses are mainly a repetition of the difficult passage from ch. 49: 19 concerning Edom. It has already been suggested that Edom and Babylon were thus coupled because in the latter days "they antitypically unite against Jerusalem, and are there overcome and destroyed by 'the Good Shepherd', as when David prevailed over Goliath with the sling and stone".
The chief difference between that passage and this is that whereas Edom's fate concerned chiefly the countries round "the Red Sea", the fall of Babylon is a matter of world-wide lamentation. This feature of the prophecy (and others) are in striking harmony with the prophetic descrip tion of the fate of antitypical "Babylon" in the book of Revelation (ch. 18).
In the Revised Version in these passages the expression "swelling of Jordan", is rendered "pride of Jordan", and taken to refer to the luxuriant vegetation round the river, where once the lions lurked. But, for our own part, we prefer the A.V. "swelling" and think that the Word of God to the prophet in ch. 12:5 more naturally bears that translation. There "swelling", is in opposition to "peace".
We have seen for ourselves that "Jordan overfloweth all Ins banks all the time of harvest" (Joshua 3: 15); and the figure of an overflowing river is the prophetic symbol of the invasion of Immanuel's land by the Assyrian (Isa. 8:7).
God's "chosen man", who is "like me" (like God), the final conqueror of "Babylon", is Immanuel himself, of whom Cyrus was but the type (Isa. 45). He, at the head of his "holy apostles and prophets", ultimately rejoices over the fall of "Babylon" (Rev. 18: 20). As to the divine question, "Who will appoint me the time?" the apostle Peter tells us that it was always an enigma to the prophets themselves, who "enquired and searched diligently" (about it) "searching what, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow" (1 Pet. 1: 10, 11).