Jeremiah, chapter 50.1-13
interpretation - meaning - commentary - explanation
(1) The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. (2) Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. (3) For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
Prophetic words like many about Babylon in the Scriptures. In the Book of Jeremiah, prophecies closer to fulfillment are often interspersed with distant prophecies about the end times, they are also ambiguous i.e. they refer to the period of ancient Babylon as well as Babylon the symbol of evil, associated with Satan. Throughout Scripture Satan - evil is presented as Babylon so not always the word Babylon refers to the city but to the system, Lucifer and generally what evil is.
The city of Babylon was captured by Cyrus, king of Persia. The Persians, at some distance from the city, diverted the river into a hollowed-out channel, thus draining the moats surrounding the fortress. The attack took place at night, the Persian army entered the city under powerful gates that hung over the drained river. According to Herodotus, the city was not destroyed at the time because rebellious priests and city residents helped in its capture. The drying up of the river and the conquest of Babylon 210 years before these events was written about, among other things, by the prophet Isaiah in chapters 44 and 45 of the Book of Isaiah.
Merodach is a deity worshipped by the Babylonians and the people of Mesopotamia. Around 481 BC, the Persian leader Xerxes took a 5.5-meter-high golden statue of Marduk and destroyed Esagil's temple. In later years, the statue was destroyed.
(4) In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God. (5) They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. (6) My people hath 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 restingplace. (7) All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers. (8) Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks.
The Judeans, who had been abducted into Babylonian captivity, were not to return to Judea until 70 years later to rebuild the country, along with Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord. One of the most interesting books of Scripture is the Book of Nehemiah, in which we read about the rebuilding of the city walls and the zeal with which Nehemiah set to work.
(9) For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.
Although the city was captured without bloody clashes, before this happened Cyrus' army fought battles in the lands of Babylonia.
The fall of Babylon
(10) And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD. (11) Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls; (12) Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. (13) Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.
The city gradually lost its importance in part due to its incorporation into the Assyrian province. Only after the conquest of Babylon by Alexander the Great did it briefly revive, but more interestingly, it was thanks to Seleucus I (an officer in Alexander's army) that the new city of Seleucia, located near Babylon, was founded, which became the main cause of Babylon's desolation. In 275 BC, it was recognized as a royal city, and the inhabitants were forcibly resettled from falling Babylon. In the 1st century BC, such a once mighty city was abandoned and over time covered with desert sand.
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