Jeremiah 50:1-32, Oracles Against the Nations: A Message for Babylon (Part One)

This is the last of the oracles against the nations, and it is the longest. Babylon was the “sword of Yahweh” used by Yahweh to judge the nations mentioned in the oracles (Jeremiah 47:6), but now she is to be punished. This first section mentions arrows as the mode of attack.

^50:1 This is the word Yahweh spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians:

² “Announce and proclaim among the nations, lift up a banner and proclaim it; keep nothing back, but say, ‘Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror.’ ³ A nation from the north will attack her and lay waste her land. No one will live in it; both people and animals will flee away.

Bel (like Ba’al) means Lord, and was another name for Marduk, Babylon’s national god. He and his images will be put to shame and filled with terror, by the threat from the north (the Medes and the Persians).

⁴ “In those days, at that time,” declares Yahweh, “the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek Yahweh their God. ⁵ They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten. ⁶ “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. ⁷ Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they sinned against Yahweh, their verdant pasture, Yahweh, the hope of their ancestors.’

Babylon’s destruction will coincide with a repentant return of Israel to her homeland and the making of a new covenant (Jeremiah 31) that is everlasting. Israel had been lost sheep led astray by her shepherds (her kings, priests and prophets), sheep who had been devoured by her enemies with the excuse that she had sinned against Yahweh, Yahweh who was Israel’s verdant pasture, Israel’s hope, which she had rejected. Babylon was the devourer who would now be punished.

⁸ “Flee out of Babylon; leave the land of the Babylonians, and be like the goats that lead the flock. ⁹ For I will stir up and bring against Babylon an alliance of great nations from the land of the north. They will take up their positions against her, and from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed. ¹⁰ So Babylonia will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares Yahweh. ¹¹ “Because you rejoice and are glad, you who pillage my inheritance, because you frolic like a heifer threshing grain and neigh like stallions, ¹² your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who gave you birth will be disgraced. She will be the least of the nations—a wilderness, a dry land, a desert. ¹³ Because of Yahweh’s anger she will not be inhabited but will be completely desolate.

Babylon’s enemies’ arrows will all hit the mark and Babylon will be plundered because Babylon pillaged Israel, Yahweh’s inheritance. Yahweh’s anger against her will be completely sated by her desolation.

All who pass Babylon will be appalled; they will scoff because of all her wounds. ¹⁴ “Take up your positions around Babylon, all you who draw the bow. Shoot at her! Spare no arrows, for she has sinned against Yahweh. ¹⁵ Shout against her on every side! She surrenders, her towers fall, her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of Yahweh, take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done to others. ¹⁶ Cut off from Babylon the sower, and the reaper with his sickle at harvest. Because of the sword of the oppressor let everyone return to their own people, let everyone flee to their own land.

Arrows should not be spared and all those oppressed by Babylon with exile from their own lands may return to their own people.

¹⁷ “Israel is a scattered flock that lions have chased away. The first to devour them was the king of Assyria; the last to crush their bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.” ¹⁸ Therefore this is what Yahweh Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria. ¹⁹ But I will bring Israel back to their own pasture, and they will graze on Carmel and Bashan; their appetite will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead. ²⁰ In those days, at that time,” declares Yahweh, “search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare.

Yahweh gives a brief history of the disciplining of His people, first by Assyria, then Babylon. He punished Assyria and He will punish Babylon. He will restore His people to the lushness of their land, and He will forgive their sin.

²¹ “Attack the land of Merathaim and those who live in Pekod. Pursue, kill and completely destroy them,” declares Yahweh. “Do everything I have commanded you. ²² The noise of battle is in the land, the noise of great destruction! ²³ How broken and shattered is the hammer of the whole earth! How desolate is Babylon among the nations! ²⁴ I set a trap for you, Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it; you were found and captured because you opposed Yahweh. ²⁵ Yahweh has opened his arsenal and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Sovereign Yahweh Almighty has work to do in the land of the Babylonians.

Marathaim and Pekod were the two main divisions of Babylon and they will be attacked. The nation that once was the “hammer” of the earth will be trapped and God will go to work on her destruction.

²⁶ Come against her from afar. Break open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain. Completely destroy her and leave her no remnant. ²⁷ Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter! Woe to them! For their day has come, the time for them to be punished. ²⁸ Listen to the fugitives and refugees from Babylon declaring in Zion how Yahweh our God has taken vengeance, vengeance for His temple. ²⁹ “Summon archers against Babylon, all those who draw the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel. ³⁰ Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets; all her soldiers will be silenced in that day,” declares Yahweh. ³¹ “See, I am against you, you arrogant one,” declares the Lord, Yahweh Almighty, “for your day has come, the time for you to be punished. ³² The arrogant one will stumble and fall and no one will help her up; I will kindle a fire in her towns that will consume all who are around her.”

Babylon’s sins have been arrogance (as if they made themselves powerful enough to conquer the earth), defiance of Yahweh (though Yahweh was using them to discipline the nations and His own people, they did it in a way that defied Him), and destruction of His holy Temple (which Israel trusted in rather than Yahweh Himself). No one will be spared God’s judgment.

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Discussion Questions:

1. Does the shaming and terrorizing of Marduk suggest that he really exists?
2. If Marduk does really exist, what kind of spiritual being would he be?
3. How arrogant do we feel about our own military might?
4. Has our military power acted in defiance of God?