1-46 Judgment on Babylon
- Declare among the nations that Babylon will be put to shame. After God uses Babylon to punish his people, he punishes Babylon for her arrogance. We join with Habakkuk in trying to understand this strategy of God to punish the nation he's used to punish his people. I'm thinking that if Babylon had humbled herself before God after her conquest of Judah, maybe he wouldn't have seen fit to destroy her. But she doesn't. Her conquest of Judah just adds to her own arrogance. It's not unlike when we credit ourselves too much, even while knowing we would have nothing without God.
- For out of the north a nation has come up against her, and all who dwell in her will flee. When the warning was for Judah, this expression "out of the north" referred to Babylon. Now it refers to the Medo-Persian empire.
- In those days, the people of Israel and Judah will weep as they seek the LORD; they shall ask the way to Zion. Literally, only the inhabitants of Judah returned to their land. But the covenant of faithfulness they make, recorded in Nehemiah 9, is made on behalf of the entire Jewish nation.
- My people have been like lost sheep, devoured by their enemies, who deny any guilt, because they were merely the instruments of my punishment. Jeremiah quotes these enemies as referring to God as "the true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their ancestors." Though they didn't worship him, Israel's conquerors recognized YHWH as the source of their strength against God's people.
- Flee from Babylon, because a "company of great nations" shall "array themselves" against her, and they will not return home empty-handed. Again, referring to the combined nation of the Medes and Persians under Cyrus.
11-13 "O plunderers of my heritage," though you play about like a young heifer, your mother will be disgraced, because the wrath of the LORD will turn her into an utter desolation.
14-16 Warriors, surround Babylon. Shout against her, spare no arrows, cut her off, for the LORD is taking vengeance on her. Her captives will flee to their own lands.
[Prose format]
- Israel is a hunted sheep, first by Assyria and then by Babylon.
- I will punish Babylon just like I punished Assyria.
- I will restore Israel to its land and will forgive the sins of the remnant I have spared.
21-22 Go up against Merathaim (Double Rebellion, symbol for Babylon) and Pekod (previously the province of Nineveh, now a Babylonian province, translated as "punishment"), and utterly destroy them.
23-25 Babylon, you have caught yourself in your own snare because you challenged the LORD, and now he has opened up his whole armory against you.
26-27 Open her granaries and spill all her wheat, kill all her cattle, for Babylon's day has come.
- [Jewish] refugees will come back to Jerusalem telling of Babylon's destruction.
- Summon archers against Babylon; let no one escape, for she has arrogantly defied the LORD.
- The people of Israel and Judah are oppressed; their captors have refused to let them go, but their Redeemer is strong, and he will give them rest while giving unrest to Babylon.
- Babylon shall become a land of hyenas and ostriches, never more inhabited by people, just like Sodom and Gomorrah. Prophesied also about Edom, in 49:18.
43 When the king of Babylon hears of them, anguish and pain seize him, like a woman in labor. Jeremiah has used this analogy of a woman in labor before. Before, it has been an illustration of helplessness, now of pain.
- The LORD is like a lion entering a pasture, preying on the little sheep. No shepherd can protect his flock against God. He uses the same language for Edom (49:19).
- When Babylon is captured, the whole earth will tremble and hear her cries.
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