Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Jeremiah 50:6-10
God's Call To His Errant People To Flee From Babylon Because The Wrath Of YHWH Is Coming On It (Jeremiah 50:6).
Israel's plight is described as resulting from her backslidden condition, a plight seen by onlookers as totally deserved because of her disobedience to God. Now, however, she is called on to flee from Babylon because Babylon faces judgment. God's people should not become caught up in Babylon's ways. Rather they should flee from them.
This call to flee from Babylon because of the disaster that is to come upon it echoes Isaiah 48:20 which referred not specifically to the return from exile (which was an ordered march not a flight) but to the need to come out from Babylon with all its evil and perverted ways, and to do it in haste because of the judgment that was coming on it. It did, of course, include the fact that when the opportunity arose to leave Babylonia they should take advantage of it. Babylon was exalted in men's eyes, the seat of all that was against God (Isaiah 13:19; Isaiah 47:8), and men flocked there because of the pleasures and wealth that it offered. But God's people are called on to flee such things, recognising that they can only finally lead to judgment.
“My people have been lost sheep,
Their shepherds have caused them to go astray,
They have turned them away on the mountains,
They have gone from mountain to hill,
They have forgotten their resting-place,
All who found them have devoured them,
And their adversaries said, ‘We are not guilty,
Because they have sinned against YHWH,
YHWH, the habitation of righteousness,
Even YHWH, the hope of their fathers.' ”
The backslidden state of Israel/Judah is described. They are ‘lost sheep' (compare Isaiah 53:6; Ezekiel 34:5), something later emphasised by Jesus (Matthew 9:36; Matthew 10:6; Matthew 15:24; Matthew 18:12; Luke 15:3; Luke 19:10). They have been led astray by their shepherds (their kings, priests, prophets and wise men) who have caused them to go astray. Thus they find themselves facing the danger of the diversified ‘mountains' in which they find themselves, going from one mountain to another, lost and alone. They have ‘forgotten their resting-place', their place of peace and security. This could be a covert reference to the Temple (2 Chronicles 6:41), or to God's land in which they had had security when they were obedient to the covenant (Isaiah 65:10; Exodus 33:14; Deuteronomy 12:9; Deuteronomy 25:19; Joshua 1:13). But it was probably not true that they had forgotten either, as Jeremiah well knew. In the end it was their covenant God Whom they had forgotten, their God Who should have been their resting place as Jeremiah 50:7 makes clear.
And those who have ‘devoured' them have been able to do so with a good conscience, because they were able to declare that what had come on Israel/Judah was due to its own failure in sinning against YHWH, their covenant God, against YHWH Who was the dwellingplace of righteousness and was the One to Whom their fathers had looked. They had forsaken Him and His way of righteousness in spite of all the promises which He had made to them, promises in which they gloried while worshipping other gods. They had ceased to be true to YHWH. They had still clung to the outward form of their religion, but they had ceased to observe its very essence, genuine spiritual response and obedience to their covenant God. As Jesus would later put it, ‘why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say?' (Luke 6:46).
‘YHWH, the habitation of righteousness.' This in contrast with Babylon which was the habitation of all evil and idolatry.
‘YHWH, the hope of their fathers.' It was YHWH in Whom all the promises rested, and therefore in Whom their hopes should have lain. It was YHWH to Whom, in their best moments, their fathers had looked with such expectancy. Above all it was to YHWH that their founding fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had looked, as they had laid the foundation for what was to come. All their hopes had lain in Him.
“Flee out of the midst of Babylon,
And go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans,
And be as the he-goats,
In front of the flocks.”
Thus they are to be the first to flee from Babylon, and from Babylonia, with the same eagerness as he-goats or rams lead out the flock, giving an example to others. It is the thought of escaping from the clutches of Babylon that is pre-eminent here, not the idea of return to the homeland, although that may be seen as included. It was because Babylon was facing coming judgment. Thus they are to lead themselves and others to safety. The wording is remarkably similar to Isaiah 48:20; Isaiah 52:11 from which no doubt Jeremiah at least partly obtained these ideas.
We in this modern day are just as much in danger of God's judgment on the Babylon that surrounds us, we too therefore need to flee from its corrupting influence and so escape that judgment. We might reinterpret John as saying, ‘Love not Babylon, nor the things that are in Babylon, for if any man loves Babylon, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in Babylon, the desires of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the vainglory of life is not of the Father but is of Babylon. And Babylon passes away and its desires, but he who does the will of God abides for ever' (see 1 John 2:15). In these Chapter s we have a picture of God's judgment on that Babylon.
“For, lo, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon,
A company of great nations from the north country,
And they will set themselves in array against her,
From there she will be taken,
Their arrows will be as of an expert mighty man,
None will return in vain.
And Chaldea will be a prey,
All who prey on her will be satisfied,
The word of YHWH.”
The instruments of God's judgment are now described. They consist of a company of great nations from the area around Babylonia (the north country as far as Palestine was concerned), stirred up by YHWH, who will set themselves in array against her and take her. They will include expert bowmen (Media, Elam and Persia were renowned for their bowmen), and all will obtain satisfactory spoils. Chaldea will be like a prey being hunted down by the hunter, and the hunters will come away satisfied, loaded with spoils. And all this according to the prophetic word of YHWH, and as a result of YHWH's prompting in order to bring judgment on Babylon.
‘None will return in vain.' This may refer to the men themselves, or it may refer to their arrows. In the former case it refers to the fact that they will return loaded with spoils. In the latter case the point is that each will have reached its target however skilful the bowman. God will have guided his hand. Arrows were valuable and would often be collected up after a battle. Thus when they were collected they would be reveal by where they were found that they had achieved their purpose.