Jeremiah 50
The book's long series of oracles against the nations now arrives at the greatest of them all. Babylon is the empire that conquered Judah, burned Jerusalem, and carried the people into exile - the superpower of the age, seemingly invincible, written into the very order of the world. Yet the LORD speaks against her with absolute certainty, and the word is to be shouted everywhere: 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 (v. 2). Bel and Merodach were the chief gods of Babylon, the powers she boasted in; the oracle declares them shattered. The empire that seemed permanent will fall, and the idols she trusted will be exposed as nothing.3
But the fall of Babylon is not the chapter's deepest concern. Running all through it is the gathering of a broken people. 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 (v. 4). The long-divided kingdoms come back as one, in tears, asking the way to Zion and saying to one another, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten (v. 5). They had been lost sheep whose shepherds led them astray (v. 6); now they turn home. The God who scattered in judgment gathers in mercy.2
At the heart of the oracle stands the reason such a hope can hold. Against an empire that held its captives fast and refused to let them go, one verse names the One who takes their side: Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land (v. 34). The chapter then circles back to the breaking of proud Babylon, the sword upon her graven images (v. 38), and the army out of the north before whom her king's hands grow feeble - closing with a question that no power on earth can answer: who is that shepherd that will stand before me? (v. 44).
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Jeremiah 50:1-10Babylon Is Taken · Let Us Join Ourselves to the LORD
1The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. 2Declare 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. 3For 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. 4In 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. 5They 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. 6My 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. 7All 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. 8Remove 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. 9For, 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. 10And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD.
The oracle opens by naming its target plainly: The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans (v. 1). Then comes the announcement, and it is to be made as loudly and publicly as possible: 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 (v. 2). The verbs pile up - declare, publish, set up a standard, publish, conceal not - as if the news is too great to keep quiet. Bel was the chief god of Babylon, and Merodach (Marduk) the city's patron deity; together they stood for everything Babylon trusted in. The oracle declares them confounded and broken in pieces, the same fate it pronounces on the city's idols and images. This is not a forecast of mere political weakness. It is a verdict on the whole religious foundation of the empire: the gods Babylon boasted in cannot save her, and the nation from the north will leave her land desolate, emptied of both man and beast (v. 3). What looked eternal is going to fall.3
Against the dark backdrop of a falling empire, the oracle turns suddenly bright, and the brightness is a homecoming: 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 (v. 4). Read it slowly, because nearly every word carries weight. Israel and Judah - the two kingdoms torn apart for centuries, the northern tribes long since scattered by Assyria, the south now broken by Babylon - come back together. They come weeping, not in despair but in the tears of return, the grief of those who finally turn toward home. And they come seeking the LORD their God, the very thing the long story of the prophets had pleaded for. The fall of Babylon is not the point; it is the doorway. Behind the breaking of the empire stands this: a divided, scattered people made one again, drawn back to the God they had left.
The returning people are given words to say, and the words are among the most moving in the book: 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 (v. 5). Notice the posture - with their faces thitherward. They are turned toward Zion, leaning homeward, asking the road like travelers who have been long away and mean to make the journey. And hear what they say to one another: not let me but let us. It is a summons that passes from neighbor to neighbor, each calling the next to come along. What they seek is not merely a place but a bond: let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant. The word perpetual answers the whole tragedy of the book. Israel's covenants had been broken again and again; this one is perpetual and shall not be forgotten. The earlier promise of the book stands behind this verse - a covenant the LORD would write upon the heart, that the people could not break because He Himself would keep it. Here the people, in their own mouths, reach for exactly that.2
Then the LORD speaks of His people with a tenderness that aches: 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 (v. 6). The picture is of sheep with no safe fold, wandering from one bare ridge to the next, unable to find the place of rest. And the blame is laid first not on the sheep but on the shepherds - the leaders, prophets, and kings who were charged to guide the flock and instead caused them to go astray. Yet the people are not excused either; their adversaries are quick to say, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD (v. 7). Both things are held together: they were misled, and they had wandered. Against this comes the urgent call: 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 (v. 8). The same people pictured as helpless, scattered sheep are now told to lead the way out like the strong male goats that go at the head of the flock. The God who will judge Babylon - making Chaldea… a spoil (v. 10) - calls His own to come out and march home.
Jeremiah 50:11-20Israel a Scattered Sheep · I Will Bring Him Again
11Because 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; 12Your 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. 13Because 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. 14Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD. 15Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her. 16Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land. 17Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. 18Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. 19And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead. 20In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.
The oracle now turns to the reason Babylon falls, and it is not arbitrary. 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 (v. 11). Babylon had been God's instrument to discipline His people - but she went far beyond her commission. She did not merely conquer; she rejoiced over the ruin of mine heritage, gloating over the suffering of God's people as a well-fed animal bellows in the open field. There is a hard lesson here that runs through the prophets: God may use a nation to chasten His own, and still hold that nation fully accountable for the cruelty and pride with which it acted. Babylon's glee over Judah's fall is itself the charge against her. So the verdict comes: Your mother shall be sore confounded (v. 12); Babylon, the proudest of cities, will become a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert, until passers-by hiss at all her plagues (v. 13). The measure she dealt out will be measured back: as she hath done, do unto her (v. 15).
The summons to the armies that will overthrow Babylon is sounded plainly: Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about… spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD (v. 14); Shout against her round about… her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down (v. 15). It is worth pausing on how the chapter names what is happening: it is the vengeance of the LORD. This is not human revenge, the endless cycle of one nation repaying another out of wounded pride. It is the just response of God to real evil - to a power that hath sinned against the LORD and trampled His heritage. Scripture is careful to keep this in God's hands and out of ours: the vengeance belongs to Him. And there is mercy folded even into the judgment. Among Babylon's population were many captive peoples, dragged there against their will; when the sword comes, they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land (v. 16). The fall of the oppressor is, for the oppressed, the road home. God's justice against Babylon is at the same time His release of those she held.
Now the focus returns to the people themselves, and the image is unforgettable: Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones (v. 17). The whole sorrowful history is gathered in one sentence: a lone sheep, driven this way and that by predators, first mauled by Assyria, then with its bones broken by Babylon. But the very next word turns everything: Therefore thus saith the LORD… I will punish the king of Babylon… as I have punished the king of Assyria (v. 18). The lions that tore the flock will themselves be dealt with. And then the promise opens wide and green: And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead (v. 19). These are the lush pasturelands - Carmel by the sea, the rich heights of Bashan and Gilead. The scattered, starving sheep will be brought home to fat pasture, and his soul shall be satisfied. The shepherd-language is exact: the lost flock is gathered, led, fed, and filled.
The promise reaches its height in a verse about forgiveness so complete it is almost startling: In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve (v. 20). Imagine someone going to look for the people's sins - combing the record, searching the books - and finding nothing there. There shall be none… they shall not be found. This is more than a debt deferred or a punishment suspended; it is guilt that has been taken clean away, as though it had never been. The same God who, through this whole book, has named Judah's sins one by one with terrible exactness now promises a day when those sins cannot be located at all. And the ground is His own action: for I will pardon them. The pardon is not earned by the people's record but granted by the LORD's mercy toward them whom I reserve - the remnant He keeps for Himself. This is the deepest part of the homecoming. The sheep are not only gathered and fed; they are forgiven, their sins searched for and not found.
Jeremiah 50:21-32The Hammer of the Whole Earth Cut Asunder
21Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded thee. 22A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. 23How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! 24I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. 25The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans. 26Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left. 27Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation. 28The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple. 29Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel. 30Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD. 31Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord GOD of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee. 32And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.
The oracle presses on with the summons to judgment. Merathaim and Pekod (v. 21) are real regions of Babylonia, but the names are chosen to ring with meaning - Merathaim suggests “double rebellion” and Pekod “visitation” or “punishment.” The land of double rebellion is now visited. Then comes a cry of astonishment that captures the whole reversal: How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! (v. 23). Babylon had been exactly that - the hammer that pounded nation after nation flat, the instrument by which the whole earth was beaten down. The image had been true; Babylon really was the great hammer of her age. And now the hammer itself lies cut asunder and broken. The tool that broke everyone is itself shattered. The verse marvels at how thoroughly the mighty have fallen. And the reason is given without flinching: thou hast striven against the LORD (v. 24). Babylon was caught in a snare she never saw coming - thou wast not aware - because for all her might she had set herself against the One who cannot be overpowered.
The chapter now lifts the curtain on where Babylon's overthrow actually originates: The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans (v. 25). The picture is striking. Behind the armies marching from the north, behind the bent bows and the camped archers, there is an armoury that belongs to the LORD, and He has opened it. The nations that come against Babylon are, in the end, the weapons of his indignation - instruments in His hand. This is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts: not an accident of history, not the mere rise and fall of empires by their own strength, but a deliberate act of the God who commands the hosts of heaven and earth. The summons goes out to strip Babylon bare - open her storehouses… let nothing of her be left (v. 26) - and those who escape will carry the news to Zion: the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple (v. 28). The burning of His house in Jerusalem is not forgotten; this is His answer to it. What unfolds against Babylon is the LORD's own work, drawn from His own armoury.
Beneath every charge against Babylon lies one root sin, and the oracle names it again and again: pride. She is to be repaid because she hath been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel (v. 29). Then the LORD speaks to her directly, and the address is itself a title: Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud… for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee (v. 31). Babylon's very name in this verse is her sin - thou most proud. And the most chilling words are the simplest: I am against thee. There is no army, no wall, no god, no alliance that can stand when the LORD of hosts says that. The outcome is certain: the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up (v. 32). This is the deepest reason the great empire comes down. It is not finally about military defeat or shifting borders; it is that Babylon lifted herself against the LORD, and pride set against God has only one possible end. The same warning sounds through all of Scripture - the proud are scattered, the haughty brought low - and Babylon, the proudest of all, is its clearest case. When God Himself is against the proud, no hand can raise them up again.
Jeremiah 50:33-40Their Redeemer Is Strong
33Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go. 34Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. 35A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men. 36A sword is upon the liars; and they shall dote: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed. 37A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed. 38A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols. 39Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. 40As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.
Here is the heart of the chapter, and one of the great verses of the book. First the plight is stated with painful clarity: The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go (v. 33). The captives could not free themselves. Their captors gripped them tight and would not loosen their hold - the very picture of a people powerless against a strength far greater than their own. And then, against that hopeless grip, comes the answer: Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land (v. 34). Everything turns on those words. The captives are weak, but their Redeemer is strong. The word Redeemer is the language of the kinsman who steps in to buy back his own - to ransom a relative sold into bondage, to take up the cause of one who cannot defend himself. The captors are strong enough to hold the people fast; the Redeemer is stronger. And He will throughly - thoroughly, completely - plead their cause. He does not take up the case halfway. He presses it all the way through to rest and release. The exiles' hope does not rest on their own strength but on the strength of the One who has named Himself their kinsman-Redeemer.1
From the strong Redeemer the oracle turns to the sword that falls on all Babylon trusted in. The drumbeat is relentless: A sword… a sword… a sword - upon her wise men, her liars, her mighty men, her horses and chariots and treasures (vv. 35-37). Each thing Babylon counted on for security is named and struck. Her famed wisdom turns to folly; her mighty men are dismayed; her hoarded treasures are plundered. And then the deepest charge of all: A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols (v. 38). Here is the root of Babylon's ruin laid bare. She was the land of graven images, and her people were mad upon their idols - not merely mistaken about them but infatuated, driven, out of their senses with devotion to gods that could not save. The same idols named at the chapter's opening - Bel… Merodach, confounded and broken in pieces - are her undoing here. So thorough is the judgment that Babylon becomes a haunt of wild beasts and owls, never again inhabited (v. 39), overthrown as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 40). The greatest city of the age, mad upon its idols, ends as empty wilderness.
Jeremiah 50:41-46Who Is That Shepherd That Will Stand Before Me?
41Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. 42They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not shew mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon. 43The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail. 44Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me? 45Therefore hear ye the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them. 46At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.
The oracle closes by circling back to the army that will undo Babylon, and the description is fearsome: Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not shew mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea (vv. 41-42). There is a deliberate and pointed reversal here. These verses echo, almost word for word, what Jeremiah had earlier said about Babylon herself when she came up against Jerusalem - cruel, merciless, roaring, riding to battle from the north. Now the very terror Babylon once inflicted is turned back upon her. The empire that came from the north against God's people now faces a great nation from the north; the cruelty she dealt out is dealt to her. And the proud king who once made other kings tremble now trembles himself: The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail (v. 43). The hands that broke nations hang limp; the conqueror is gripped by the helpless pain of a woman in labor. The reversal is complete.
The final movement gathers up four short, hammering questions that no power on earth can answer: who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me? (v. 44). The LORD speaks as the unrivaled Sovereign. Who is like me? - none. Who will appoint me the time? - none can set His schedule or call Him to account. And the last is the most arresting: who is that shepherd that will stand before me? Babylon's king fancied himself a shepherd of nations, the strong one whose will the world obeyed. But no shepherd, however mighty, can stand before the LORD when He moves against him. Then comes a quiet, almost startling image of how God will do it: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out (v. 45). The mightiest empire in the world will be dragged down not by another superpower but, as it were, by the least of the flock - the smallest and weakest, in God's hand, sufficient to topple the greatest. And when it falls, the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations (v. 46). The fall of proud Babylon sends a tremor through the whole world.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Jeremiah 50 with Rashi, Radak, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for the phrase tzon ovdot (v. 6, the “lost sheep” whose shepherds led them astray) and for go'alam chazaq (v. 34, “their Redeemer is strong”), where go'el is the kinsman-redeemer who buys back his own.
- Jeremiah 50 ↔ Luke 15 · John 10 · Revelation 18Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Jeremiah 50 to the rest of Scripture - the lost sheep and astray-leading shepherds (v. 6) read alongside the Good Shepherd who seeks the one that is lost (Luke 15:4-6; John 10), and the fall of Babylon with her shattered idols (vv. 2, 38) read beside Babylon the great is fallen (Rev. 18:2).
- Jeremiah 50 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Jeremiah 50 - the names Bel and Merodach in verse 2, the “perpetual covenant” of verse 5, the much-discussed kinsman-redeemer language of verse 34, and the historical setting of Babylon's fall behind the whole oracle.
Where this echoes in Scripture
Babylon Is Taken · Let Us Join Ourselves to the LORD
- Luke 15:4-6What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine... and go after that which is lost, until he find it?The answer to the lost sheep of verse 6 - the Shepherd who goes after the one that is lost until He finds it.
- John 10:11, 16I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep... there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.The scattered flock of verse 6 and the people gathered together of verse 4 - one fold under one Shepherd.
- Jeremiah 31:31-34I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah... I will be their God, and they shall be my people.The perpetual covenant the returning people reach for in verse 5 - Israel and Judah joined to the LORD in a bond that will not be broken.
- Ezekiel 34:11-12I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out... so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered.The same complaint and the same cure as verses 6-8 - failed shepherds, and the LORD Himself coming to seek the scattered flock.
- Revelation 18:2Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils.The fall announced in verse 2 carried to its end - the great power and all it trusted in brought down.
Israel a Scattered Sheep · I Will Bring Him Again
- Psalm 23:1-3The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want... he restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness.The promise of verse 19 in its purest form - the scattered sheep brought to pasture and the soul satisfied by the Shepherd.
- Micah 7:18-19Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity... thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.The pardon of verse 20 - sins not merely forgiven but put utterly out of sight, sought for and not found.
- Isaiah 43:25I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.The same complete forgiveness as verse 20 - the LORD Himself blotting out the record so the sins cannot be found.
- Romans 12:19avenge not yourselves... Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.The principle behind verse 15 - the vengeance against Babylon belongs to the LORD, not to human hands.
- Hebrews 8:12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.The pardon of verse 20 carried into the new covenant - sins remembered no more by the God who reserves a people for Himself.
The Hammer of the Whole Earth Cut Asunder
- Isaiah 14:12-15How art thou fallen from heaven... For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven... yet thou shalt be brought down to hell.The same astonishment as verse 23 and the same root sin as verses 29-31 - the proudest power lifted up against God and brought down.
- James 4:6God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.The principle behind verse 31 - the LORD sets Himself against the proud, as He sets Himself against “thou most proud.”
- Proverbs 16:18Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.The fall of verse 32 in a single line - the proud one stumbles, and none can raise him up.
- Isaiah 10:15Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?... as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up.The truth behind verse 25 - the conquering nation is only a tool in the LORD’s hand, drawn from His armoury.
- Daniel 5:22-28thou hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven... God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.Babylon’s pride against the LORD (vv. 29, 31) judged in a single night - the kingdom weighed and brought to an end.
Their Redeemer Is Strong
- 1 John 2:1if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.The Redeemer who pleads the cause of His people in verse 34 - the Advocate who takes up their case before the Father.
- Hebrews 7:25he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.The strong Redeemer of verse 34 who <em>throughly</em> pleads - the One who saves to the uttermost and ever lives to intercede.
- Ruth 4:9-10Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all... Moreover Ruth... have I purchased to be my wife.The kinsman-redeemer of verse 34 in action - the near kinsman who buys back his own and restores them.
- Isaiah 47:4As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.The very title of verse 34 - the LORD of hosts named as Redeemer over against the fall of Babylon.
- Mark 10:45the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.The strong Redeemer of verse 34 in person - the One who ransoms captives held fast, at the cost of His own life.
Who Is That Shepherd That Will Stand Before Me?
- John 10:11, 16I am the good shepherd... and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.The answer to the question of verse 44 - the one true Shepherd who gathers the flock and stands with the Father, not against Him.
- 1 Corinthians 1:27God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.The way of verse 45 - the mightiest power drawn out by <em>the least of the flock</em>, the weak confounding the strong.
- Isaiah 40:25To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.The unanswerable question of verse 44 - <em>who is like me?</em> - spoken by the God before whom no power can stand.
- Revelation 18:9-10the kings of the earth... shall bewail her... saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon... for in one hour is thy judgment come.The earth moved and the nations crying at Babylon’s fall (v. 46) - the same shock when the great city comes down at last.
- Jeremiah 6:22-23a people cometh from the north country... they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea.The very words once spoken of Babylon against Jerusalem, now turned back on her in verses 41-42 - the reversal complete.