50:1 The Lord spoke concerning Babylon and the land of Babylonia through the prophet Jeremiah.
While Jeremiah was restrained in Egypt, Jehovah prophesied about the future destruction of Babylon during the Great Tribulation. It must be remembered that Jerusalem is God’s city and Babylon is Satan’s city. Babylon will be the capital of the Antichrist’s kingdom during the Great Tribulation.
50:2 “Announce the news among the nations! Proclaim it! Signal for people to pay attention! Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say: ‘Babylon will be captured. Bel will be put to shame. Marduk will be dismayed. Babylon’s idols will be put to shame. Her disgusting images will be dismayed.
Jeremiah was to make an announcement to the Gentile nations about the future destruction of Babylon. Bel means “lord.” He was the storm god of Babylon during Jeremiah’s day. Marduk was the chief god of the Babylonian Pantheon and the supposed creator of the world. Marduk may have been a deified form of Nimrod, the evil founder of the Tower of Babel. The announcement to the Gentiles was that Babylon was going to be destroyed. These Babylonian gods will not be able to save them from God’s future judgment. The Hebrew word for “disgusting images” is גִּלּוּלִים (gillulim), meaning “balls of excrement.”
50:3 For a nation from the north will attack Babylon. It will lay her land waste. People and animals will flee out of it. No one will inhabit it.’
Cyrus was the King of Persia. The Persians were from the east and not from the north. Cyrus did not make the city desolate. Instead, he subjugated her for natural resources. Babylon remained populated for several centuries afterwards. Therefore, this must be another nation who will attack Babylon during the Great Tribulation.
50:4 “When that time comes,” says the Lord, “the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together. They will come back with tears of repentance as they seek the Lord their God.
After Babylon is destroyed during the Great Tribulation, then Israel will return from all of the nations of the world to inhabit the promised land. This time period will be called the Millennial Kingdom. The tears of repentance mean that Israel will change her attitude about the Lord Jesus Christ. The entire nation of Israel will receive national regeneration. All of those who seek the Lord will find him. They will recognize Jesus as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53.
50:5 They will ask the way to Zion; they will turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord
After Babylon is destroyed during the Great Tribulation, then Israel will return to her land and make an everlasting covenant with God. This everlasting covenant will be the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-34.
50:6 “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have allow them to go astray. They have wandered around in the mountains. They have roamed from one mountain and hill to another. They have forgotten their resting place.
Israel has been scattered into all of the nations like lost and scattered sheep. They are without their Messiah, who is their true Shepherd. Israel has been following false shepherds. The false shepherds of Israel are the rabbi who have been continually leading her astray. During the Great Tribulation, the Jews will leave Jerusalem and hide out in the mountains of Petra. They will not recognize their true Shepherd Messiah until the last three days of the Great Tribulation.
50:7 All who encountered them devoured them. Their enemies who did this said, ‘We are not liable for punishment! For those people have sinned against the Lord, their true pasture. They have sinned against the Lord in whom their ancestors trusted.’
The Gentile nations devoured the sheep of Israel. The Gentiles felt that they had the right to devour the Jews, because the Jews had rejected her Messiah. The Gentiles claimed innocence and called the Jews “Christ-killers” in order to cover up their anti-Semitism. These anti-Semitic Gentiles were fulfilling this prophecy. God will not allow Gentiles to use Jewish unbelief as a reason for their anti-Semitism. Jewish unbelief never gave the Gentiles an open checkbook to persecute Jews. This type of persecution has been a common theme throughout the church age. The Crusaders called the Jews “Christ-killers” and killed them. King Ferdinand and Isabella ran them out of Spain and plundered their property for the state. Martin Luther spoke against the Jews during the Reformation. Adolph Hitler used quotes from Martin Luther in order to justify his genocide of the Jews.
50:8 “People of Judah, get out of Babylon quickly! Leave the land of Babylonia! Be the first to depart! Be like the male goats that lead the herd.
There are Jehovah Witnesses who falsely use this verse to warn modern Christians that they need to leave their local churches and join the Watchtower Society. This is not the meaning of this verse. Instead, Jeremiah was warning the “people of Judah” (Jews) to leave the future city of Babylon, because the capital of the Antichrist will be destroyed. The he-goat was the leader of the flock. The other sheep will follow his lead. These future Jews were commanded by Jeremiah to become he-goats and lead the other sheep (Messianic Jews) out of Babylon.
50:9 For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon a host of mighty nations from the land of the north. They will set up their battle lines against her. They will come from the north and capture her. Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier who does not return from the battle empty-handed.
The Persians came from the east and not the north, so this is not the Persians. This verse refers to a mighty host of nations who will combine under one flag and destroy Babylon.
50:10 Babylonia will be plundered. Those who plunder it will take all they want,” says the Lord.
In verse 7, The Jews will be the prey who will be plundered. In this verse, the Babylonians will become the prey who will be plundered. According to Revelation 17-18, Babylon will be the capital of the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation. Babylon will become one of the wealthiest cities in the world. However, she will be defeated and plundered by enemies from the north.
50:11 “People of Babylonia, you plundered my people. That made you happy and glad. You frolic about like calves in a pasture. Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion.
Babylon will receive the kind-for-kind judgment of the Abrahamic Covenant. Babylon has always been and will be anti-Semitic. Babylon will enjoy plundering Israel. so Babylon will be plundered by these other nations just as joyfully.
50:12 But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born will be disgraced. Indeed, Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert.
During the Millennial Kingdom, all of the earth will return to its Garden-of-Eden conditions. The only three exceptions will be Edom, Babylon, and Saudi Arabia. These three territories will become dry and barren deserts.
50:13 After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. It will be totally desolate. All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it.
There will be no citizens living in Babylon during the Millennial Kingdom. Babylon will be used as an example of what evil can do to a city if it is left alone without the grace of God. People will hiss at the city of Babylon, because this will be the former city of the Antichrist.
50:14 “Take up your battle positions all around Babylon, all you soldiers who are armed with bows. Shoot all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! For she has sinned against the Lord.
Cyrus of Persia did not defeat Babylon with his bow and arrow artillery. He snuck under the walls and took Babylon without a fight. This is a prophecy of the destruction of Babylon at the end of the Great Tribulation. The reason that she receives this judgment is because she sinned against the Lord by attacking Israel.
50:15 Shout the battle cry from all around the city. She will throw up her hands in surrender. Her towers will fall. Her walls will be torn down. Because I, the Lord, am wreaking revenge, take out your vengeance on her! Do to her as she has done!
Cyrus did not tear down the walls and towers of Babylon. Cyrus took Babylon without a fight. This is a prophecy of the future rebuilt city of Babylon during the Great Tribulation. The shout of the battle cry is the shout of a future northern military commander to proceed with the attack.
50:16 Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army.
There will be a mass execution of the food producers of the Antichrist. Many Gentiles will be visiting Babylon. They will be asked to go back to their own nations so that they will not be killed by the armies from the north. The Gentiles will escape by following the he-goat Jews.
50:17 “The people of Israel are like scattered sheep which lions have chased away. First the king of Assyria devoured them. Now last of all King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones.
Jeremiah gave a summary of the history of Israel’s suffering, The Gentile nations were like beasts who wish to devour the sheep. Israel was like a hunted sheep who wandered around lost and aimlessly without her Shepherd. Assyria was the first lion who devoured the ten northern tribes. Nebuchadnezzar was the second lion who gnawed on the bones of the two southern tribes.
50:18 So I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, say: ‘I will punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.
Notice this verse is written in the future tense. The King of Babylon will be the Antichrist of the Great Tribulation.
50:19 But I will restore the flock of Israel to their own pasture. They will graze on Mount Carmel and the land of Bashan. They will eat until they are full on the hills of Ephraim and the land of Gilead.
Mount Carmel is modern Galilee. Bashan is the modern Golan Heights. Ephraim is the modern West Bank. Gilead is the modern East bank of the Jordan. God will restore Israel back to her own pasture lands during the Millennial Kingdom. She will receive all of the literal land which was promised to Abraham, isaac, and Jacob.
50:20 When that time comes, no guilt will be found in Israel. No sin will be found in Judah. For I will forgive those of them I have allowed to survive. I, the Lord, affirm it!’
“When the time comes” will be the 5th stage of the campaign of Armageddon. During this time period there will be a national conversion of Israel. Those Jews who survive the Great Tribulation will enter into the Millennial Kingdom as Jewish believers in the Messiah.
50:21 The Lord says, “Attack the land of Merathaim and the people who live in Pekod! Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them! Do just as I have commanded you!
Merathaim means “double rebellion.” There was no known actual city in ancient Babylon by that name. Pekod means “visitation of punishment.” Babylon will receive the חָרַם (herem) curse. The entire city will be devoted to God for destruction. This means that humans will not be allowed to touch the future city of Babylon. This judgement was similar to the חָרַם (herem) curse which Jericho received. Achan touched a Babylonian garment in Jericho, causing massive deaths among the Israelite people. What was true of Jericho will become true of Babylon. These words were sarcastic wordplays about the southern and eastern districts of Babylon. God was using the Hebrew language to show that He will attack “the land of double rebellion” and “He will visit the city with destruction.”
50:22 The noise of battle can be heard in the land of Babylonia. There is the sound of great destruction.
The noise of the battle will signal the sounds of the military destruction of Babylon.
50:23 Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces. But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations!
This sentence begins with the Hebrew exclamation word אֵ֤יךְ (aik), meaning "an emphatic and shocking surprise!" Babylon will become the only city in history who will actually conquer the whole world. However, God will turn this smashing hammer into a broken hammer. The hammer which shattered the nations will herself become shattered.
50:24 I set a trap for you, Babylon; you were caught before you knew it. You fought against me. So you were found and captured.
Babylon will be caught in Jehovah’s trap. Jehovah’s trap will be a surprise attack upon the city. Babylon will be burned to the ground before she can figure out what is happening to her.
50:25 I have opened up the place where my weapons are stored. I have brought out the weapons for carrying out my wrath. For I, the Lord God who rules over all, have work to carry out in the land of Babylonia.
If taken literally, then Babylon will be destroyed by supernatural weapons of God. This destruction may be similar to that of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is interesting to note that archaeologists have recently excavated the five cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
50:26 Come from far away and attack Babylonia! Open up the places where she stores her grain! Pile her up in ruins! Destroy her completely! Do not leave anyone alive!
God will give this northern military confederacy of the future seven commands. First, they are to combine and attack Babylon. Second, they are free to open the storehouses and eat the grain. Third, they are to destroy the walls, buildings, and roads and pile them in ruins. Fourth, Babylon is to be completely destroyed. Fifth, no one is to be left alive.
50:27 Kill all her soldiers! Let them be slaughtered! They are doomed, for their day of reckoning has come, the time for them to be punished.”
Six, all soldiers are to be killed. Seventh, all livestock are to be slaughtered. This complete and final destruction of Babylon will all happen on the day of God’s visitation.
50:28 Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon. They are coming to Zion to declare there how the Lord our God is getting revenge, getting revenge for what they have done to his temple.
After the Babylon of the Great Tribulation is destroyed, then many of the Jewish fugitives and refugees will return to Jerusalem and report the destruction. The Antichrist would have desecrated the Jewish Temple 3.5 years earlier by stepping into it and claiming that he is God. Therefore, God will destroy the Antichrist's capital city.
50:29 “Call for archers to come against Babylon! Summon against her all who draw the bow! Set up camp all around the city! Do not allow anyone to escape! Pay her back for what she has done. Do to her what she has done to others. For she has proudly defied me, the Holy One of Israel.
The pride of Babylon will be humbled. Snipers will be placed outside of the city. No one will be allowed to leave alive.
50:30 So her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the Lord.
Not all of the soldiers were destroyed during the attack of Cyrus. This slaughter looks forward to the Babylonian destruction of the Great Tribulation.
50:31 “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” says the Lord God who rules over all. “Indeed, your day of reckoning has come, the time when I will punish you.
God is saying that Babylon’s day of visitation will come.
50:32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city; no one will help you get up. I will set fire to your towns; it will burn up everything that surrounds you.”
The proud city of Babylon will fall and never rise again. During the Millennial Kingdom. she will become a continuous burning wasteland.
50:33 The Lord who rules over all says, “The people of Israel are oppressed. So too are the people of Judah. All those who took them captive are holding them prisoners. They refuse to set them free.
During the Great Tribulation, Babylonians will enslave the Jews. The Messiah will be Israel’s only redeemer.
50:34 But the one who will rescue them is strong. He is known as the Lord who rules over all. He will strongly champion their cause. As a result he will bring peace and rest to the earth, but trouble and turmoil to the people who inhabit Babylonia.
The “Lord who rules over all” is יְהוָ֤ה צְבָאֹות֙ (Jehovah Zavoat), meaning the vovenant-keeping-promise-keeping-God of the angelic army. He is the one who uses his angelic beings to help fulfill the Abrahamic, Davidic, and New covenants. God does not need the angels to help Him keep these promises, but He chooses to partnership with them. God will bring peace and rest to the messianic Jews and believing Gentiles, but He will bring terror to all Christ-rejecters.
50:35 “Destructive forces will come against the Babylonians,” says the Lord. “They will come against the people who inhabit Babylonia, against her leaders and her men of wisdom.
Verses 35-37 record “the sword song” of Jehovah. The Hebrew word for “destructive forces” is חֶ֥רֶב (herev), meaning a sword. Many dictators enforce gun laws on their people so that they can be easily controlled. The Antichrist may pass global gun laws in order to leave the global population without weapons to defend themselves from the wrath of the Antichist. It is possible that only the army of the Antichrist will possess firearms. Therefore, the soldiers against the Antichrist will have to use horses, swords, knives, bows, arrows, and other ancient weapons. A popular modern saying is that World War III will be fought with sticks and stones.
50:36 Destructive forces will come against her false prophets; they will be shown to be fools! Destructive forces will come against her soldiers; they will be filled with terror!
The Hebrew word for “destructive forces” is חֶ֥רֶב (herev), meaning a sword. The sword will also be used against the false prophets and soldiers of the Antichrist.
50:37 Destructive forces will come against her horses and her chariots. Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; they will be as frightened as women! Destructive forces will come against her treasures; they will be taken away as plunder!
The חֶ֥רֶב (herev) sword will also be used against the horses, chariots, foreign troops, and plunder of the Antichrist. All different social and economical classes will be killed by the sword.
50:38 A drought will come upon her land; her rivers and canals will be dried up. All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols. Her people act like madmen because of those idols they fear.
The sword of judgment will also cause drought to fall upon Babylon. The rivers and canals of Babylon will dry up. At the beginning of the Campaign of Armageddon, the Euphrates Rivers will dry. Babylon will be a city of demonic idols. The people in the city will fear the demonic powers behind the idols. They will actually become insane over their own man-made terrors.
50:39 Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there. Ostriches will dwell in it too. But no people will ever live there again. No one will dwell there for all time to come.
The Hebrew word for “desert creatures” צִיִּים֙ (tsiyim), meaning wildcat-like creatures. The Hebrew word for “jackals” is אּיִּים (iyim), meaning hyena-like creatures. The Hebrew word for “ostriches” is בְּנֹ֣ות יַֽעֲנָ֑ה (bonot yaanah), meaning daughters of unclean birds who dwell in the wllderness. These are not literal animals, but they are demons who share these animalistic qualities. During the Millennial Kingdom, Babylon will become a fiery prison for demons. No humans will live in Babylon.
50:40 I will destroy Babylonia just like I did Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it,” says the Lord.
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone. Their total destruction was left as a witness to the world of what happens to a city who rebels against God. During the Millennial Kingdom, Babylonia and Edom will become similar examples to the rest of the nations of the world. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah have been witnesses to the pre-tribulation world, then Babylon and Edom will become witnesses to the post-tribulation world. The post-tribulation world will be the literal 1000 year Millennial Kingdom.
This prophecy has never been fulfilled. Babylon has always been inhabited throughout her history. The government of Iraq has recently began to rebuild some of the old city. Their building project is published in a pamphlet call Archaeological Survival of Babylon Is a Patriotic, National, and International Duty (Baghdad: State Organization of Antiquities and Heritage, 1982).
50:41 “Look! An army is about to come from the north. A mighty nation and many kings are stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.
Cyrus the Persian came from the east, not from the north. The future invaders of Babylon will come from the north.
50:42 Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on their horses. Lined up in formation like men going into battle, they are coming against you, fair Babylon!
The army from the north will be just as fierce and cruel as that of Babylon.
50:43 The king of Babylon will become paralyzed with fear when he hears news of their coming. Anguish will grip him, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby.
The King of Babylon will be the Antichrist. This army from the north will cause him pain and anguish, such as a woman experiencing birth pangs. This will mean that the Antichrist is about to be defeated and thrown into the Lake of Fire. Like the fallen angels, the Antichrist sided with Satan and lost. Satan offered Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world, but Jesus refused. Satan will offer all of the kingdoms of the world to the Antichrist, but the Antichrist will accept.
50:44 “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. So too I will chase the Babylonians off of their land. Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For there is no one like me. There is no one who can call me to account. There is no ruler that can stand up against me.
The northern confederacy will come upon Babylon just as a lion pounces upon an unsuspecting prey from the jungle bushes. This attack will be a surprise. The victims will be killed very quickly. God will be in control of this attacking army.
There is no one like God. There is no one who can judge God. There is no king who can stand against God and survive.
50:45 So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Babylon, what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia. Their little ones will be dragged off.
I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done.
What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah will happen to Babylon. There will be no one who can stop God from His visitation of destruction.
50:46 The people of the earth will quake when they hear Babylon has been captured. Her cries of anguish will be heard by the other nations.”
All of the people on the earth who follow the Antichrist will shake with fear when they find out how Babylon was destroyed supernaturally by God. The angels will promise eternal destruction to anyone who takes the mark of the beast. Everyone who will follow the Antichrist will think that he will be a god and that he will win. However, they will found out that they have joined the wrong side. They will shake with fear, because their destiny is eternity in the Lake of Fire.