Jeremiah 50:21 - Meaning and Application

Here the forces are gathered and sent out to destroy Babylon. Everything is being prepared for an attack on that powerful kingdom: “Go up against that land by Merathaim,” and go among the people of Pekod, another region Cyrus passed through on his way to Babylon. The armies of Cyrus are called to come against Babylon from the farthest border. Distance must not keep anyone from joining this work, because there will be enough to do, and enough reward, for all, as Jeremiah 50:26 says. The archers are especially called to gather against Babylon, as in Jeremiah 50:29.

In this way the Lord has opened his armory, that is, his storehouse, and brought out the weapons of his anger. Great rulers do this when they open their magazines and supply their armies for a major campaign. Media and Persia are now God’s armory. From there he brings out the weapons of his wrath, Cyrus and his officers and armies, whom he will use to bring Babylon down. Great men are only tools in the hands of the great God. He has many such tools, keeps them ready, and opens his storehouses as the need arises. This is the work of the Lord God of armies. When God has work to do, he will show that he truly is the God of armies, and he will not lack the means to do it.

They are also given instructions about what to do. In general, they must do everything God has commanded, as Cyrus was told, “He will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 44:28). They must destroy Babylon completely. After one round of destruction, they must go over the land again, or else destroy the children who come after the first generation. They must open her storehouses, plunder her treasures, and turn her own weapons against her. They must pile her up like heaps of ruins. All the wealth and splendor of Babylon will be shoveled into a heap of rubble. The margin reads, “Tread her down as heaps,” and the sense is the same: destroy her completely.

See how little value the great God places on the things people treasure and boast about. Babylon’s princes and great men, who are strong and well-fed, will fall by the sword. They will not die as soldiers on a field of honor, but like cattle at the butcher’s hand, as Jeremiah 50:27 says. “Slay all her bulls,” meaning all her mighty men. They will go down dull and unaware, like an ox led to slaughter. Their ruin is all the sadder because they feel so little of it. Their day has come, the time when they must give account, and they do not know it.

They are also assured of success. If they do what God commands, they will accomplish what he has threatened. A great destruction will come, as Jeremiah 50:22 says. Babylon will become a ruin, and her young men and all her soldiers will be cut off on the very day that should have protected her, as in Jeremiah 50:30. God is against her, Jeremiah 50:31 says. He has laid a trap for her, and he has planned this whole campaign so that she will be caught like a bird in a snare. Cyrus will surely win, because he fights under God. God will also set fire to Babylon’s cities, Jeremiah 50:32, and no one can stand before him when he is angry, or put out the fire he has kindled.

Reasons are then given for this severe judgment on Babylon. Those who are used in this war may, if they choose, know the reasons and see that the justice of it is good. That is fitting for all who are called to such work. First, Babylon has been a source of trouble, harm, and oppression to all its neighbors. It has been the hammer of the whole earth, Jeremiah 50:23, beating nations down and breaking them to pieces near and far. It has done this long enough. Now it is time for it to be cut apart and broken. He who is the God of nations will, in time, defend the rights of nations against those who attack them unjustly. The God of the whole earth will break the hammer of the whole earth.

Second, Babylon has defied God himself. “You have striven against the Lord,” Jeremiah 50:24 says. The word means it has joined battle or a legal contest with him, openly opposing him, setting up rivals to him, and rebelling against him. So now it is found out and caught like a bird in a trap. Those who strive against the Lord soon learn they are outmatched.

Third, Babylon ruined Jerusalem, the holy city, and the holy house there, and now it must answer for that. This is the message proclaimed in Zion on the day Babylon is judged: it is the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance for his temple, Jeremiah 50:28. The burning of the temple and the carrying away of its vessels were treated as the strongest charges against Babylon. They mattered even more than its being the hammer of the whole earth, because Zion was the joy and glory of the whole earth. Whatever harm is done to God’s church, his temple in the world, will certainly be repaid. No vengeance will be harsher than the vengeance for the temple.

Fourth, Babylon has been proud and arrogant, and so it must fall. It is God’s glory to look on the proud and bring them low, Job 40:12. “I am against you, O most proud,” Jeremiah 50:31 says, and again in Jeremiah 50:32. The word means, “You pride,” as proud as pride itself. Pride in human hearts sets God against people and quickly leads them toward ruin. God opposes the proud and brings them down. The proud will stumble and fall, not so much because others push them down, but because they trip over themselves. They hold their heads so high that they do not watch their steps or avoid stumbling blocks, and so they walk blindly into danger.

Babylon’s pride will certainly be her ruin, because she has been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel, Jeremiah 50:29. She has insulted him by insulting his people. She has made God her enemy, and so when she falls, no one will lift her up, Jeremiah 50:32. Who can help those up whom God has determined to throw down?