Jeremiah 50:9 - Meaning and Application

God is here, through his prophet, and later through his providence, carrying out his case against Babylon.

First, notice the charge and commission given to the powers used to destroy Babylon. The army that will do this is called an assembly of great nations (Jeremiah 50:9), the Medes and Persians, along with their allies and supporting forces. They are called an assembly because God has formed them by his will and purpose to carry out this judgment. God will raise them up for this work, move them toward it, and fit them for it. Then he will bring them up, because all their movements are under his guidance and direction.

He will give the command, order them to draw up against Babylon (Jeremiah 50:14), and then they will do so (Jeremiah 50:9). What God appoints will be carried out. From the moment they sit down before the city, they will keep gaining ground until Babylon is taken. God will tell them to shoot at her and spare no arrows (Jeremiah 50:14), and then their arrows will be like those of a mighty, skilled warrior, someone with both strength and accuracy, a good eye and a steady hand (Jeremiah 50:9). None of their shots will fail. When God gives the command, he also gives success.

They are also told not only to shoot at her (Jeremiah 50:14), but to shout against her (Jeremiah 50:15) with a victory cry, as people already sure of triumph. Those whom God directs to shoot may do so with shouting, because they are certain not to miss their mark.

Second, the ruin and desolation that will come on Babylon are described in several ways. Babylon’s wealth will become an easy and rich prize for its conquerors (Jeremiah 50:10). Chaldea will be plunder for all who destroy her, and, strangely, all who spoil her will be satisfied. They will take so much that even they will say they have enough.

Babylon’s land will be emptied of people and left uninhabited. It will be completely desolate (Jeremiah 50:13), so much so that everyone passing by will rejoice at her fall. Instead of grieving, they will hiss at all her troubles (Jeremiah 50:13). Those who came before and fled at the first attack will be ashamed of their cowardice (Jeremiah 50:12). Or, as the source puts it, “your mother,” meaning Babylon itself, the mother city, will be put to shame when she sees that those who should have guarded her have abandoned her.

This is a warning to later generations too. Former ages of Christians may rightly be ashamed when they see how unlike them later ages have become and how badly they have declined. No sin brings a surer and harsher ruin on people than turning away from God.

Babylon, once admired, will become despised. She will be the last of kingdoms, the very tail of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert (Jeremiah 50:12). The land that was crowded will be emptied. The land that had been rich and fruitful will become barren. The great city, the head of the kingdom, will be ruined completely. Its foundations have fallen, and so its walls will come down, because walls cannot stand when divine judgment shakes the very base. This is the vengeance of the Lord, and nothing can stand against it in court or in battle.

There will not even be a poor remnant left in Babylon to serve as vine-dressers or farmers, as there was in Israel (Jeremiah 50:16). The sower will be cut off from Babylon, along with the one who handles the sickle. The land will be so emptied that no one will till the ground or gather its crops. Harvest will come, and there will be no reapers. Seedtime will come, and there will be no sower. God will do his part, but there will be no people left to do theirs.

All the hired allies who served Babylon will desert her, as mercenaries often do when danger comes near (Jeremiah 50:16). For fear of the sword that crushes, each one will return to his own people. This was said earlier about Egypt, too (Jeremiah 46:16).

Third, the cause of this destruction is God’s anger. Babylon will be completely desolate because of the wrath of the Lord (Jeremiah 50:13), and his wrath is just, because she sinned against the Lord, so no arrows are to be spared (Jeremiah 50:14). Sin is what makes people a target for God’s judgments. Babylon had much idolatry and immorality, but the source does not name these as the main reason for God’s anger. Instead, it points to the harm Babylon did to God’s people, driven by hatred toward them as his people. Babylon was the destroyer of God’s inheritance (Jeremiah 50:11). God did use Babylon to correct his people, but Babylon’s intent was total ruin, and that became its guilt.

What Babylon did against Jerusalem, it did gladly (Jeremiah 50:11). “You were glad, you rejoiced.” God does not punish his people willingly, so he deeply resents it when the tools he uses against them take pleasure in their pain. When Titus Vespasian destroyed Jerusalem, he wept over it, but the Chaldeans rejoiced over it.

They also used the spoil of Jerusalem to feed their own pride and luxury. “You have grown fat as a grazing heifer and bellow like bulls.” By conquering Jerusalem, they became proud, self-indulgent, and threatening to everyone around them. So they themselves must become plunder. Those who have swallowed wealth must give it up again. They have given their hand (Jeremiah 50:15), meaning they have surrendered to the conqueror. They have yielded so fully that now vengeance can be taken on her, and Babylon can be treated as she treated others.

Babylon aimed at nothing less than the complete ruin of God’s Israel. Israel is pictured as a scattered sheep, as before (Jeremiah 50:6), not only troubled by dogs, but also hunted by lions, the most powerful enemies, who have roared at him and driven him away (Jeremiah 50:17). One Assyrian king carried away the ten tribes and devoured them. Another invaded Judah and plundered and weakened it, tearing the wool and flesh from this poor sheep. Now at last Nebuchadnezzar, the terror and plague of all his neighbors, has taken advantage of Israel’s weak state, attacked him, and broken his bones. He has ruined him completely, so the king of Babylon must be punished as the king of Assyria was (Jeremiah 50:18).

Those who carry forward the sins of their predecessors should expect to be pursued by the same plagues. If they do as their forefathers did, let them suffer as they suffered.

Fourth, God promises mercy to his people in Israel, and that mercy will come along with Babylon’s fall and also flow from it. God will bring back their captivity. They will be freed from bondage and brought again to their own home, like sheep scattered abroad and then gathered back to their fold (Jeremiah 50:19).

They still had a right to the land of Canaan, and it remained their home in God’s purpose. Their loss of possession did not cancel their title. But now they would enjoy it again.

God would restore their prosperity. They would not only live in their own land again, but live well there. They would feed on Carmel and Bashan, the richest and most fertile parts of the country. These sheep would be gathered out of the deserts where they had been scattered and put back into good pasture, where they would be fully satisfied.

They had asked the way to Zion (Jeremiah 50:5), because they wanted to serve and worship God there. That was their main goal in returning. But God would do more than bring them to Zion. He would also bring them to Carmel and Bashan, where they would enjoy plenty. Those who return to God and to their duty find true peace and satisfaction in doing so. Those who seek first God’s kingdom and right way, and aim to make their home on Zion, God’s holy hill, will also receive other blessings, even the comforts of the fruitful hills of Ephraim and Gilead.

God would also forgive their sin, and this is the root of everything else (Jeremiah 50:20). In those days, people would look for Israel’s guilt and find none. God would not only remove the punishment of their sin, but also put away the offense it gave him. He would be reconciled to them. Their sin would be as if it had never been. It would be wiped out like a cloud, crossed out like a debt, and thrown behind God’s back. It would be cast into the depths of the sea, no longer stored among God’s records, and no longer in danger of rising up against them.

This shows how completely God forgives sin. He remembers it no more. Deliverance from trouble is only a true comfort when it comes from the forgiveness of sin (Isaiah 38:17). Judah and Israel were so fully forgiven when they returned from Babylon that it was said they received from the Lord’s hand double for all their sins (Isaiah 40:2). This may also include a deep change in their hearts and lives, along with full forgiveness of their sins. If anyone looked for idols or idolatrous customs among them after their return, there would be none. They would not find them. Their impurity would be fully removed, and that would show that their guilt had been taken away too. “I will pardon those whom I reserve.” That is, I will be gracious to them, and this must be through him who is the great sacrifice for sin, the propitiation, the one who turns away God’s wrath by taking away sin. Those whose sins God forgives he also keeps for great things, for whom he justifies he also glorifies.