Jeremiah 51:41-46

C. Babylon's Demolition and Israel's Liberation Jeremiah 51:41-46

TRANSLATION

(41) How sad that Sheshak is captured, the praise of all the earth is taken! How sad that Babylon has become an astonishment among the nations! (42) The sea has gone up against Babylon; she is covered with the tumult of its waves. (43) Her cities have become an astonishment, a dry land, a wilder. ness, a land where no man dwells and no human being passes by. (44) I will punish Bel in Babylon and make him disgorge that which he has consumed. No more shall nations flow unto him. Also the wall of Babylon shall fall. (45) Go out from her midst, O My people! Let every man flee for his life from the fierce anger of the LORD. (46) Let not your heart faint nor fear because of the report in the land; for a report shall come in one year, and after that in another year a report shall come: Violence is in the land and ruler opposes ruler.

COMMENTS

Jeremiah begins this section of his oracle with a sarcastic lamentation over the fall of Babylon. The how of Jeremiah 51:41 is not the how of amazement. The Hebrew word belongs to the vocabulary of lamentation and perhaps can best be rendered in English by how sad it is! No doubt the word is used here sarcastically. How sad it is that Sheshach, the praise of the whole earth, is captured. Sheshach is a cryptic name for Babylon (see comments on Jeremiah 25:26). How sad it is that Babylon the mighty metropolis has become a desolation and an astonishment among the nations (Jeremiah 51:41). A sea[419] of foreign invaders sweeps over the land of Babylonia (Jeremiah 51:42) leaving in its wake a desolation, a desert, a land where no man dwells (Jeremiah 51:43). The fall of Babylon will be as much a judgment upon the gods of Babylon as upon the city itself. Bel, the chief god of Babylon, will be forced to disgorge all that he has devoured of the riches of subjugated nations. No more would Babylonian conquests bring a stream of captives to the prison house of Babylon. Indeed those massive walls themselves would fall and all prisoners within would be free to return to their native lands (Jeremiah 51:44). The gods of Babylon had had their moment of glory and seeming triumph when they destroyed Jerusalem and brought the people of God into captivity. But with the fall of Babylon from a position of world power the once famous gods of Babylon dwindled into insignificance and finally oblivion.

[419] Some prefer to interpret the word sea as referring to the annual inundations of the Euphrates which even to this day render many parts of the ruins of Babylon inaccessible.

The fall of Babylon means liberation for the people of God and the prophet returns in Jeremiah 51:45-46 to this minor theme which runs throughout the Babylon oracle. He repeats what he earlier has urged (Jeremiah 50:8) that when the captives see the fierce anger of the Lord beginning to be poured out upon Babylon they should flee from the city (Jeremiah 51:45). Meanwhile they should not be disturbed by rumors of war and internal conflict for these but foreshadow that final day of doom for Babylon. Numerous upheavals and throne changes plagued Babylon after the death of Nebuchadnezzar in 562 B.C. The prophet warns his brethren lest these commotions disturb them and arouse premature hopes of release. One is reminded of the similar admonition of Christ concerning the wars and rumors of war which prelude the day of the Lord (Matthew 24:6; Luke 21:28).