The introduction to the last chapter also applies to this chapter. As I’ve already said, the two chapters are actually a single prophecy. Throughout this chapter, we find a repetition of what God is saying, first He talks about the destruction of Babylon, and then He talks about His protection of His people, and they are mentioned in the same order throughout.
God is going to stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai, Jeremiah 51:1. As a wind separates the chaff from the wheat, the enemy of Babylon would blow her away as chaff, Jeremiah 51:2.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘When the corn is trodden out with the feet of cattle, or crushed out with a heavy wheel armed with iron, with a shovel they throw it up against the wind, that the chaff and broken straw may be separated from it. This is the image used by the prophet; these people shall be trodden, crushed, and fanned by their enemies.’
The archers of the enemy would shoot their arrows through the strongest armour of the Babylonians, Jeremiah 51:3. She is to be utterly destroyed, Jeremiah 51:3-4, because of her sin against God’s people. Jeremiah 51:5.
These prophecies of the doom of Babylon were made many years before Babylon fell. When the prophecies were fulfilled, Israel would know that God had not forsaken His people.
If one would save his life, then he must flee from Babylon, Jeremiah 51:6. Babylon was a gold cup in God’s hand; she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; they have gone mad, Jeremiah 51:7.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Jeremiah beholds her in her splendour, but the wine whereof she makes the nations drink is the wrath of God. As God’s hammer, Jeremiah 50:23, Babylon was strong: as His cup of gold, she was rich and beautiful, but neither saves her from ruin.’
Since she is beyond healing, as was Israel and Judah in their days of apostasy, then there would be no healing, Jeremiah 51:8-9 / Jeremiah 29:7. The destruction of Babylon was the vindication of God’s people, Jeremiah 51:10. God is going to use the kings of the Medes to destroy Babylon and He will take revenge for His temple, Jeremiah 51:11-12.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes – Of Cyaxares, king of Media, called Darius the Mede in Scripture and of Cyrus, king of Persia, presumptive heir of the throne of Cyaxares, his uncle. Cambyses, his father, sent him, Cyrus, with 30, 000 men to assist his uncle Cyaxares, against Neriglissar, king of Babylon, and by these was Babylon overthrown.’
God says, ‘you who live by many waters and are rich in treasures,’ Jeremiah 51:13. What is the connection here between rich treasures and water? Babylon had the River Euphrates and also a vast system of canals, which provided both security and irrigation.
We know that the biggest and wealthiest cities throughout the world are those situated on the banks of great rivers, so this was the source of Babylon’s ‘rich treasures’.
‘I will surely fill you with men, as with as warm of locusts,’ Jeremiah 51:14. I’m sure you have already come upon locusts in your Old Testament studies, and you will know that they are a truly destructive insect.
Locusts were the source of the worst plagues that ever came upon the people in that area, and we still hear of swarms of locusts there today. But the message here is that God will provide swarms of men who will ransack the Babylonians in the same way as the Babylonians destroyed Judah.
When we read these verses and Jeremiah 10:12-16, we see that it’s almost word-for-word. And so, it should be. I would hate it if a preacher preached the same message but told a different story from the biblical account. Since it is reasonable to conclude that God is the creator of all things, Jeremiah 51:15-16.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘There is a multitude of waters. The electric spark, by decomposing atmospheric air, converts the hydrogen and oxygen gases, of which it is composed, into water, which falls down in the form of rain. He is the Author of that power of evaporation by which the water is rarified, and, being lighter than the air, ascends in the form of vapour, forms clouds, and is ready to be sent down again to water the earth by the action of his lightnings, as before. And by those same lightnings, and the agency of heat in general, currents of air are formed, moving in various directions, which we call winds.’
Since God is the creator of all things, idolatry, which is the manifestation of the spiritual inventions of man, is insane, Jeremiah 51:17-18. God has revealed Himself to those He created, Romans 1:20.
It is foolish, therefore, to ignore the evidence of God in the created world in order to follow after something that has been created after the imagination of men. For this reason, the invention of idols is a disgrace to the thinking of men. Idols are the result of men who seek to deceive themselves by believing lies.
God, who is the Portion of Jacob, is not like these worthless idols; He is the Maker of all things, including the people of his inheritance, and His name is the LORD Almighty, Jeremiah 51:19.
God will break into little pieces everything that appertains to Babylon, Jeremiah 51:20-23. God used the Babylonians to punish Judah, as He used the Assyrians to punish Israel.
But each nation, though used by God, did not give credit to God for their existence or accomplishments. They were pagan nations who simply sowed havoc among God’s people, submitting them to slavery throughout their empires.
For this reason, they would reap what they had sown, Jeremiah 51:24. Nebuchadnezzar had exalted the Babylonian Empire as a mountain over the nations.
But in her punishment by God, she would be levelled as the flat plain on which the city was originally built, Jeremiah 51:25-26. The consequence of their maltreatment of God’s people would be their annihilation from existence, Jeremiah 51:26.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The prophet means the following.
1. Babylon would never again be the seat of empire. Nor
2. Would any new development of events take its rise thence?
The Assyrians and the Babylonians, these two empires, would never exist again in history.
Notice that Ararat is mentioned, Jeremiah 51:27; this is the mountainous area, where Noah’s ark came to rest, Genesis 8:4. Note that the KJV uses the words ‘rough caterpillars’ at the end of Jeremiah 51:27.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The rough caterpillars, i.e., locusts in their third stage, when their wings are still enveloped in rough, horny cases, which stick up upon their backs. It is in this stage that they are so destructive.’
Jeremiah 51:28 speaks about the enemy that is coming to Babylon, the king of the Medes. There is something interesting in Jeremiah 51:28 and in Jeremiah 51:11, where the Medes are again mentioned.
This is proof, if any proof is needed, that this was not the past, this was not history, but this WAS prophecy. No one who had written about this AFTER the event would have just mentioned the Medes; they would have brought the Persians into this and referred to them as the Medo-Persians.
Notice the land trembles and writhes and no one will live there, Jeremiah 51:29. Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting and they have become weaklings, Jeremiah 51:30.
One courier follows another and messenger follows messenger to announce to the king of Babylon that his entire city is captured, the river crossings seized, the marshes set on fire and the soldiers are terrified, Jeremiah 51:31-32. I bet they were; the enemy was all over their city. They had burned their houses. They had destroyed any hiding place the Babylonians might have run to.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following concerning Jeremiah 51:33.
‘The threshing wheel is gone over her, she is trodden under foot.’
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The historians state that when Cyrus captured the city, his troops moved down the bed of the river and occupied all these ferries, finding at each of them the gates negligently left open, Daniel 5:1.’
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Mighty Babylon was as helpless as a woman untrained in war, with no protection, no armour, no weapons, and no hope. Let it be remembered, however, that this was a prophecy of ‘what would happen’, not a history of what did happen.’
Though Nebuchadnezzar had committed atrocities against Israel, those who ruled the Babylonian Empire after his death would pay the price. Nebuchadnezzar had devoured Jerusalem, had treated her as ruthlessly as a serpent does its prey, Jeremiah 51:34.
The reason for the destruction of the empire, therefore, was because of Nebuchadnezzar’s maltreatment of the people of God during his reign, Jeremiah 51:34-35.
‘Make her springs dry’, Jeremiah 51:36, is a figure of speech and is evidently taken from the hanging gardens of Babylon. Water was also channelled into the city, where it was made into waterfalls and thus cooled houses. When the waters were dried up, the people sweltered in the extreme heat of the region.
God’s work through the Medo-Persians to bring down the Babylonian Empire was an act of vengeance. Since God’s people were helpless in delivering themselves, Jeremiah 51:37-38, God came to their rescue. The feast, Jeremiah 51:39, is possibly a reference to Belshazzar’s feast in Daniel 5:1-3. God is going to bring Babylon down, Jeremiah 51:40.
Some believe that Sheshack, Jeremiah 51:41, was a code word for Babylon. No one thought that Babylon would fall. She was so powerful because of her warrior culture that there was no one who could defeat her, Jeremiah 51:42.
Nevertheless, the one true God punished the false god Bel, Jeremiah 51:44. Babylon would no longer be the power to which the nations of the Near East would submit.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The sacred vessels plundered from Jerusalem, and laid up in the very temple of Bel, should be restored, the men and women dragged from other lands to people the city, released, and its wall falling would show the insignificance to which it should be reduced.’
If one would save his life, then he must flee the city of Babylon, for it would fall, Jeremiah 51:45. Though written over seventy years before the fall of Babylon, God had already made the judgment that the city would fall, Jeremiah 51:46-47.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘A year before the capture of the city, there shall be a rumour of war, and in that year Belshazzar was defeated by Cyrus. In the following year, the city was taken.’
Before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, God in His foreknowledge had already consigned the fall of Babylon. And when she did eventually fall, all who were affected by Babylon on earth were joined with angelic beings in singing for joy over her fall, Jeremiah 51:48-49 / Revelation 14.
They must never forget that Jerusalem and the temple were desecrated by those who were unbelievers, Jeremiah 51:50-51. They must never forget the shame that was brought upon God by the destruction of those things in Judah that represented the presence of God, Jeremiah 51:50-51.
God is going to punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan, Jeremiah 51:52. Though Babylon had fortified herself against the strongest attacks, those who would plunder the city had arrived. No fortification would stand against God’s decree that the city falls, Jeremiah 51:53-54.
The attackers would be like a surging wave that cannot be stopped, Jeremiah 51:55. It was a time of God’s retribution upon those who had persecuted His people, Jeremiah 51:56.
Babylon’s fall, therefore, was repayment for what Babylon had done to others. The leaders of Babylon were disoriented like a drunk, Jeremiah 51:57, and thus could not organise the forces of the nation against the attackers.
‘Babylon’s thick wall will be levelled,’ Jeremiah 51:58 / Isaiah 13:19. Many of the walls surrounding huge cities like Babylon would have had walls so thick that four chariots could have raced around them, abreast of each other. You will recall the fall of Jericho in Joshua 6; the wall was similar to this one in Babylon. Now God says, Babylon, your thick wall will be levelled.
The fall of Babylon was predicted by Jeremiah during the years that Babylon was at her greatest. Note, this was in the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah, Jeremiah 51:59.
So, Zedekiah was going to reign for another seven years before the fall of Jerusalem. So, this was another great prophecy. The message is written on a scroll and given to Seraiah, Jeremiah 51:59, the brother of Baruch, Jeremiah 32:16.
He is referred to as the staff officer, Jeremiah 51:59. He would have been in charge of such things as accommodation and travel arrangements when Zedekiah made his trip to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign, which was about 593 B.C. Jeremiah 51:59.
This man, Seraiah, took the scroll that Jeremiah had written, which talked about all the disasters that would befall the Babylonians, Jeremiah 51:60. He needed to have great courage and nerve to read such a scroll to the Babylonians, Jeremiah 51:61-62.
After he read the scroll, it was thrown into the River Euphrates, to sink, Jeremiah 51:63. This signified what would happen to Babylon; she would no longer rule, and she would never again rise to power, Jeremiah 51:64. Like the scroll, she would sink.
The last six words of this chapter say, ‘The words of Jeremiah end here,’ Jeremiah 51:64. This was probably inserted by a scribe. Someone who wanted to connect the final chapter, Jeremiah 52, as the historical record of Jeremiah’s prophecies, but also wanted to show that Jeremiah himself hadn’t written the last chapter. So, he wrote here, ‘The words of Jeremiah end here.’
That helps us to lead into Jeremiah 52, and recognise it as a historical record, not written by Jeremiah. Scholars generally agree that these six words were added by someone who wanted to maintain the integrity of their sacred books, which God had given into their keeping.