God’s Sorrow for His Chosen People

Lamentations 2:11-22

11 My eyes fail with tears,
My heart is troubled;
My bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers,
"Where is grain and wine?"
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
In their mothers' bosom.

13 How shall I console you?
To what shall I liken you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;
Who can heal you?

14 Your prophets have seen for you
False and deceptive visions;
They have not uncovered your iniquity,
To bring back your captives,
But have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions.

15 All who pass by clap their hands at you;
They hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
"Is this the city that is called
The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth'?"

16 All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, "We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the day we have waited for;
We have found it, we have seen it!"

17 The LORD has done what He purposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
And He has caused an enemy to rejoice over you;
He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.

18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,
"O wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give your eyes no rest.

19 "Arise, cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger at the head of every street."

20 "See, O LORD, and consider!
To whom have You done this?
Should the women eat their offspring,
The children they have cuddled?
Should the priest and prophet be slain
In the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 "Young and old lie
On the ground in the streets;
My virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword;
You have slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered and not pitied.

22 "You have invited as to a feast day
The terrors that surround me.
In the day of the LORD's anger
There was no refugee or survivor.
Those whom I have borne and brought up
My enemies have destroyed."

This half of the chapter shows God’s sorrow through the tears of Jeremiah for His people.  The prophet was sick to his stomach and extremely troubled inside over their demise due to their unrepentant sin.  As their lives were poured out in the open streets God’s compassion was poured on them through the heart and message of Jeremiah who desired to comfort and console the broken in heart.  But healing seemed out of reach because they had listened to false teachers promising health and wealth instead of accountability for their idolatry and immortality.  Even today we see these same type of false teachers who peddle false prophecies and delusions over the truth of God’s design for us of holiness and righteousness through repentance and faith according to his word.  God’s people then were mocked at their fall from grace and badly talked about openly.  That is the result of not living by God’s word while resting on their laurels of being the chosen people.  God was not and is not so mocked by our self righteousness but looks for the humble heart to trust in His righteousness and walk in holiness as we were called to in Christ and as Israel was called to in the spirit of the Law (John 4:24) given to teach them reliance on Him in all things (Galatians 3:23-24).  The nation chosen did not individually choose to trust and obey from their hearts and therefore God fulfilled His word to judge them according to his word given many times with that warning.  This warning of living by doing the letter of the Law was to teach them and us to trust the LORD in faith to live by His word because it would be impossible to keep every letter of the Law to perfection; only God Himself can do that, and that living Word is Christ Jesus (John 1:1, 14).  That is how worshiping in spirit and truth with humility and reliance on God was to be understood.  They did not yet grasp this and suffered defeat at the hands of their enemies.  Yes, they were told to seek God’s grace in seeking Him as verse 19 says, pouring out their hearts to Him.  Jeremiah did not quite understand either and asked why the people had to suffer so greatly as without pity, even though he had brought them the message of accountability to judgment for their rejection and lack of repentance to life (Acts 11:18).  God had invited disaster on them as a nation that each might understand and repent instead of being overtaken by the enemy.  It seemed quite hopeless until we read further.  Also as Ezekiel 33:11 and 2 Peter 3:9 explain to us, it is not God’s desire for us to face judgment but to find life in forgiving grace in Him and not our own vain efforts.  There is such hope as Romans 15:4 reminds us daily. 

Under the Cloud of God’s Wrath

Lamentations 2:1-10

1 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He cast down from heaven to the earth
The beauty of Israel,
And did not remember His footstool
In the day of His anger.

2 The Lord has swallowed up and has not pitied
All the dwelling places of Jacob.
He has thrown down in His wrath
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

3 He has cut off in fierce anger
Every horn of Israel;
He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring all around.

4 Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.

5 The Lord was like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
He has destroyed her strongholds,
And has increased mourning and lamentation
In the daughter of Judah.

6 He has done violence to His tabernacle,
As if it were a garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
The LORD has caused
The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.
In His burning indignation He has spurned the king and the priest.

7 The Lord has spurned His altar,
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He has given up the walls of her palaces
Into the hand of the enemy.
They have made a noise in the house of the LORD
As on the day of a set feast.

8 The LORD has purposed to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.

9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The Law is no more,
And her prophets find no vision from the LORD.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
Sit on the ground and keep silence;
They throw dust on their heads
And gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Bow their heads to the ground.

God’s wrath on Jerusalem and her people hung like an ominous cloud over them for their unrepentant sin.  He cast down their beauty from the image marred with sin in Edens garden and the city ceased to be His footstool (1 Chronicles 28:2-3) of His meeting place to cover their sins under the Cherubim over the Ark.  They now faced judgment and accountability since they refused and rejected Him in spirit and truth.  He razed the stronghold of their protection from around the city wall which He had guarded for them and removed his hand while consuming them in the fire of his righteous anger.  By making the LORD their enemy, they suffered and mourned with great lamentations for their loss of His favor for life.  God even had allowed the temple to be leveled since they continually desecrated it with idolatry and immortality.  He rejected their kings and priests and their appointed feasts and Sabbaths made forgotten in Zion.  Because they rejected Him, He rejected the altar of their atoning sacrifices and left the sanctuary where He met with them (Ezekiel 24:21-23) to make the once holy place ordinary and overrun by the ungodly.  This is a warning for us to not abandon God and His word lest we lose our own sanctuaries of worship when they are compromised with other idols or unrepentant unrighteousness.  He desires mercy and not sacrifice, love for Him and others and not Pharisaical lip service.  Our God is holy and a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews 12:28-29), bit He also is long suffering and full of grace to help in time of need when we confess and repent our sin and turn back to continue to follow Him according to his word.  He has taken His eternal wrath from us in Christ but still tests our hearts and keeps us accountable.  May we take all these aspects into account.  Israel refused His grace and entered into God’s wrath on their sin as wages earned (Romans 3:23, 6:23).  Israel found herself without leaders or prophets to guide because of their rejection as of the word of the LORD no longer existed (but really was just no longer being heard).  The elders were downcast and mourned with an appearance of sorrow which may have led to repentance and humility.  We can see then that there was still hope in God and His mercy.  There is always hope in the Messiah to come, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior who covers sin and offers forgiveness from our idolatrous works by His own perfect work in whom we are to trust and accept (John 6:29) as our righteousness.  These are things to learn from Israel’s demise and God’s great grace and mercy, the One who chooses and calls us out to Himself.  Lamentations can then turn to rejoicing as we no longer find ourselves under the cloud of God’s wrath! 

Righteous Affliction and Repentance

Lamentations 1:12-22

12 "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Behold and see
If there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
Which has been brought on me,
Which the LORD has inflicted
In the day of His fierce anger.

13 "From above He has sent fire into my bones,
And it overpowered them;
He has spread a net for my feet
And turned me back;
He has made me desolate
And faint all the day.

14 "The yoke of my transgressions was bound;
They were woven together by His hands,
And thrust upon my neck.
He made my strength fail;
The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.

15 "The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst;
He has called an assembly against me
To crush my young men;
The Lord trampled as in a winepress
The virgin daughter of Judah.

16 "For these things I weep;
My eye, my eye overflows with water;
Because the comforter, who should restore my life,
Is far from me.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy prevailed."

17 Zion spreads out her hands,
But no one comforts her;
The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob
That those around him become his adversaries;
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

18 "The LORD is righteous,
For I rebelled against His commandment.
Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my sorrow;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.

19 "I called for my lovers,
But they deceived me;
My priests and my elders
Breathed their last in the city,
While they sought food
To restore their life.

20 "See, O LORD, that I am in distress;
My soul is troubled;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very rebellious.
Outside the sword bereaves,
At home it is like death.

21 "They have heard that I sigh,
But no one comforts me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
They are glad that You have done it.
Bring on the day You have announced,
That they may become like me.

22 "Let all their wickedness come before You,
And do to them as You have done to me
For all my transgressions;
For my sighs are many,
And my heart is faint."

The righteous affliction of Israel was due to their continued unrepentant sin against the LORD and which Jeremiah laments here.  He talks of such immense sorrow for the sins of his people and the righteous judgment come upon them all as a result.  They were bound by the consequences of sin which is God’s hand of justice and handed over into captivity to learn to worship and follow the LORD only and not idolatry and the immortality of striving against His word (Isaiah 45:9).  The judgment of the LORD was by the bondage of captivity in a sinful land as a result of their bondage to sin, and they were meant to learn obedience through suffering to repentance and change of heart and mind in such grace instead of being entirely destroyed as they deserved.  Such is God’s grace to us all in Christ.  The weeping prophet continued to mourn his people as comfort seemed out of reach and the people seemed unwilling to change.  Yes, as Jeremiah spoke in the voice of Jerusalem and Judah carried away into suffering, he acknowledged that the LORD is just and fair in righteous judgment for their sin.  This is confession of sin.  He also realized that outside help which was not from God’s hand was utterly useless and ineffective, no matter what the counsel and guidance of the leaders of God’s people said to the contrary.  He cried out to the LORD in anguish of soul as he confessed the rebellion of his people against God’s law and person as the sword of justice cut down many all around.  His sighs brought no comfort and only added to the happiness of their enemies surrounding them as onlookers of their sorry state.  He prayed that God would bring retribution on their enemies for their own wickedness as they had suffered for their own sins.  His sighs were many and his heart was faint.  Have we wrestled with tears like this with our own sin against God and His word and come to such confession of sin and repentance by faith to come into Christ by God’s grace of forgiveness and reconciliation?  May we examine our hearts (2 Corinthians 13:5, 2 Peter 1:10-11) and do so if we read this and have not already done so.  This is not just for Israel in the times of bondage in Babylonian captivity, but is a message for us all.

A Lament for Fallen Jerusalem

Lamentations 1:1-11

1 How lonely sits the city
That was full of people!
How like a widow is she,
Who was great among the nations!
The princess among the provinces
Has become a slave!

2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
Her tears are on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers
She has none to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.

3 Judah has gone into captivity,
Under affliction and hard servitude;
She dwells among the nations,
She finds no rest;
All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.

4 The roads to Zion mourn
Because no one comes to the set feasts.
All her gates are desolate;
Her priests sigh,
Her virgins are afflicted,
And she is in bitterness.

5 Her adversaries have become the master,
Her enemies prosper;
For the LORD has afflicted her
Because of the multitude of her transgressions.
Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.

6 And from the daughter of Zion
All her splendor has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
That find no pasture,
That flee without strength
Before the pursuer.

7 In the days of her affliction and roaming,
Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things
That she had in the days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,
With no one to help her,
The adversaries saw her
And mocked at her downfall.

8 Jerusalem has sinned gravely,
Therefore she has become vile.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Yes, she sighs and turns away.
9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts;
She did not consider her destiny;
Therefore her collapse was awesome;
She had no comforter.

"O LORD, behold my affliction,
For the enemy is exalted!"

10 The adversary has spread his hand
Over all her pleasant things;
For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary,
Those whom You commanded
Not to enter Your assembly.

11 All her people sigh,
They seek bread;
They have given their valuables for food to restore life.

"See, O LORD, and consider,
For I am scorned."

This book of lament is where Jerusalem, now reduced to rubble by the invading Babylonian hordes, leads Jeremiah to write a five-poem dirge of his sadness for the death of Jerusalem which now lies barren.  The Babylonian hoards had leveled the once beautiful city of worship and pride of its people, but their sin within her walls brought down judgment and the hand of God used Babylon to level it and carry the remnant off to captivity in an even more godless place of idols.  It begins with Jerusalem in affliction.  The once grand city is now without inhabitants or her former glory among the nations and the princess has been made a slave.  The former friends and lovers allied against her and were not there to wipe away her tears.  The hard adversity and affliction of slavery gave the people of Judah no more rest in their toils given to generate repentance and renewed devotion to their LORD.  Meanwhile, the once busy roads leading to Jerusalem were now empty of pilgrims coming to worship at the temple which no longer stood there open to receive them.  The multitude of their sins handed all over to their enemies for them to prosper instead.  All looked very bleak and hopeless with such a loss of splendor and pleasantries, and their enemies just mocked the fall of that great city of God’s might and right.  Her sins had made her exposed and shameful as if naked and afraid while being despised instead of respected and feared as when they were on God’s side.  Yes, they did not consider the cost or their destiny as they went down the path of rejecting God’s word and their faithfulness to follow in righteous cleanliness of the soul and actions.  Instead of repentance for idolatry and immortality, they had pursued sin instead of Him and found no more comfort from the LORD in their captivity of kind judgment for correction to repentance (Romans 2:4, Isaiah 30:18-19).  Their enemy was lifted up it appeared while they had been brought low.  They had entered the sanctuary meant only for priests made holy and desecrated it by their presence there as the people of the Lord sighed and sought something to eat by buying it at such a high price!  They therefore prayed in the words of Jeremiah for God to look and see their sorry state and consider them once more.  They sought a blessing out of their immediate sight but it appeared lost to them at the time, not seeing it according to God’s timing in their seventy years of corrective discipline in a godless land which their own idolatry and immortality had brought them to.  This book of lament for fallen Jerusalem has hope in it, however.  They just had to trust God’s work and learn to follow again.  This is a lesson for us all in Christ when we sin and are disciplined for our own good (Hebrews 12:10-11). 

God’s Grace of Deliverance in Captivity

Jeremiah 52:24-34 

24 The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. 25 He also took out of the city an officer who had charge of the men of war, seven men of the king's close associates who were found in the city, the principal scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. 26 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.

28 These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews; 29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons; 30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons. All the persons were four thousand six hundred.

(See 2 Kin. 25:27–30 also). 31 Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. 32 And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 So Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, and he ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. 34 And as for his provisions, there was a regular ration given him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Two priests and Royal friends were taken with some others that were left in Jerusalem to Babylonia as captives doomed to death.  An army officer and scribe were also taken and executed in Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath on the great road between Jerusalem and Babylon with the rest.  This finalized the captivity of Judah who was carried off to a foreign land as prisoners for a lifetime due to their nation’s continuing unrepentant sin against their LORD who gave them all they had and who they turned their backs to.  Halfway through their captivity, Jehoiachin the captive king of Judah was given liberty from the prison and allowed him a prominent position among the kings in Babylon.   This was God’s grace and mercy by the hand of the new king of Babylon, Evil-Merodach.  He was then allowed to sit among them and dine together for the rest of his life as a further act of kindness.  This is hope for the oppressed who suffer the consequences of their own sin.  It is a picture of God’s grace to forgive and restore honor and blessings in spite of our past rebellion against the Lord.  Who knows if Jehoiachin had humbled himself and repented in those thirty-seven years of the captivity of his people?  I would like to think the did by God’s work in him as he reflected on how the sin of he and his people had brought them from idolatry into a land of idols as punishment and due consequence.  May we all find grace to help in time of need in dealing with our sins of the past.  He is ever-forgiving in Jesus Christ to sinners such as you and I.  May we remember our captivity in sin and the grace of deliverance in our salvation every day in which we live in spiritual bounty and freedom.  This is God’s grace of deliverance given is when we were in captivity to sin.  Amen. 

Plundering of the Misused Temple

Jeremiah 52:12-23

12 Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 13 He burned the house of the LORD and the king's house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. 14 And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. 15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poor people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers.

17 The bronze pillars that were in the house of the LORD, and the carts and the bronze Sea that were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all their bronze to Babylon. 18 They also took away the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. 19 The basins, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups, whatever was solid gold and whatever was solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. 20 The two pillars, one Sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were under it, and the carts, which King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD—the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. 21 Now concerning the pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, a measuring line of twelve cubits could measure its circumference, and its thickness was four fingers; it was hollow. 22 A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with pomegranates was the same. 23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates, all around on the network, were one hundred.

Jerusalem and the house supposed to be God’s were plundered and burned by the invaders brought by the LORD in judgment on God’s people for misusing the temple with idols and divided hearts of worship.  The captain of the Babylonian guard, Nebuzaradan, came as the arm of the king of Babylon who was in the hand of God’s vengeance.  He burned the house of the LORD and all the others built by Solomon for the worship and glory of God’s grace in holiness, but which had become abominable by the idolatry and immortality of the people who misused their calling and stopped serving their God in the beauty of holiness (1 Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 96:9).  God took it all away to Babylon.  All the hard work of the gifted artisans who built the elaborate temple according to the heavenly plan given to king David and followed by his son Solomon was deconstructed and carried off for the value of the metals alone.  The true value of spiritual service of worship was lost.  All was taken apart, cut into pieces, and hauled off as material treasure to a godless land of idolatry to point out what the people of God had done themselves.  Only a few poor people of the LORD were left around the ruins of what once was the center of worship and glory by His chosen people.  This is a stark warning of the damage continued and unrepentant sin can do to a people and their place of worship.  Our true place of worship is the temple of our bodies in which the Lord now lives (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 3:16-17, 2 Corinthians 6:16, 7:1); dare we desecrate these with immortality and idolatry?  Do we live in and excuse damaging sin which turns our hearts away from Him?  May we read and take heed accordingly that our temples are not misused and plundered by God’s hand.  Amen. 

Epilogue: Prophetic Fall of Jerusalem

Jeremiah 52:1-11 

1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 He also did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For because of the anger of the LORD this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, till He finally cast them out from His presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4 Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. 5 So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 6 By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. 7 Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around. And they went by way of the plain.

8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. 9 So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him. 10 Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11 He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

This chapter reads as an epilogue to show all the fulfilled prophecies given by Jeremiah to Israel and against Babylon.  The references in 2 Kings show even more (read 2 Kin. 24:18—25:26; 2 Chr. 36:11–20; Jer. 39:1–10 for more).  The reign of King Zedekiah is summarized and his fate spelled out for all the sinful evil he did during his rule of God’s people.  The end of this evil was all of the people cast out of Jerusalem and Judah into Babylonian captivity for seventy years to discipline and correct them.  When Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon encircled the holy city, once the center of God’s worship, and starved them out over a couple years.  When the city wall was breached they ran to escape the captivity which Jeremiah told them to embrace and learn humility and holiness, then those who were not scattered were taken by the Chaldean army to Babylon after first blinding Zedekiah to show he could not see like the Pharisees centuries later were told (John 9:40-41).  The people who had worshiped idols and ignored God’s corrective submission to Babylon were taken there by force anyway.  Zedekiah was thrown in prison for the rest of his life as he had done to the messenger of the LORD, Jeremiah before.  God had history in hand and moves the hearts of kings (Proverbs 21:1) along the plan of time He set before creation.  The lesson for us is to endure correction as sons and daughters instead of resisting the discipline of our Father who always knows best (2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 12:10-11).  He works all things for His glory and our good in His time, often using adversity.  We are to beware those teaching falsely that we are only to have good and not accept hard times (Job 2:10) to sanctify us lest we end up in rebellion like Zedekiah. 

The Days are Coming

Jeremiah 51:52-64

52 "Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the LORD,
"That I will bring judgment on her carved images,
And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.

53 Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me plunderers would come to her," says the LORD.

54 The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
55 Because the LORD is plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,

56 Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
For the LORD is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay.

57 "And I will make drunk
Her princes and wise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake," says the King,
Whose name is the LORD of hosts.

58 Thus says the LORD of hosts:
"The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken,
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
The people will labor in vain,
And the nations, because of the fire;
And they shall be weary."

59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster. 60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. 61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, 62 then you shall say, 'O LORD, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.' 63 Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. 64 Then you shall say, 'Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.'"

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

The words of Jeremiah against Babylon are finished and delivered to that doomed city and empire.  He wrote that the days are coming.  Days judging her idols of false and lifeless gods placed before the living LORD of all creatures and the universe in totality.  No nation is above Him or His righteous requirements.  He alone is worthy of all honor and glory and praise.  Therefore, Babylon was judged and sentenced to destruction and all would lament the loss of such a great civilization (Revelation 18:9-10) according to the standards of power, pleasure, and the fading glory of men.  No assembling of great armies or weapons or tactics could save her from the sentence passed upon her.  God had judged as we see similarly in Daniel 5:26-28 on God’s word given against the pride of man unwilling to repent and worship the LORD alone.  Yes, the forces God assembled against Babylon would surely come from the north to decimate the once lofty empire which neglected to serve God as they made their own dead gods instead.  The loud and proud voice would be stopped no matter how loudly it roared as if crashing waves beating the shore in futility.  God recompenses evil to repay the sins against Him and His people.  He is the LORD who does not change.  Those of Babylon would become as disoriented as drunkards and not awake in their eternal sleep outside of God’s presence and grace forever.  That is their punishment, just as it is for all who reject His word, both heard and living (John 1:1, 14).  People labor vainly and wear themselves out as they kick against the goads (Ecclesiastes 12:11, Acts 26:14) of God’s word.  In the end of this chapter Jeremiah finished writing the message entrusted to him for warning the people of Babylon of their determined fate pronounced by the LORD against their sins.  They would sink as surely as those words tied to a stone and thrown in the river.  The catastrophic end would make them faint of heart at their demise as it unfolded before them.  This is a warning as a picture of the final judgment and the Babylon of the world system set against the LORD and His Christ in the end.  May this bad news awaken some to turn from their own sin to Him before the great and terrible day of the Lord!  The days of accountability are coming.  Are you ready? 

The Consequences and Shame of Idolatry

Jeremiah 51:36-51

36 Therefore thus says the LORD:
"Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.

37 Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.

38 They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions' whelps.
39 In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;
I will make them drunk,
That they may rejoice,
And sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake," says the LORD.

40 "I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.

41 "Oh, how Sheshach is taken!
Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!

42 The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43 Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
A land where no one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.

44 I will punish Bel in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

45 "My people, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the LORD.
46 And lest your heart faint,
And you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land
(A rumor will come one year,
And after that, in another year
A rumor will come,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),

47 Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
48 Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
For the plunderers shall come to her from the north," says the LORD.

49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
50 You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
Remember the LORD afar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

51 We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
For strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house.

The consequences and shame of idolatry are detailed here by Jeremiah; consequences for Babylon’s sin and dragging Israel in, and shame for God’s people when they realize their own sin and going along with them against Him.  The vengeance of the LORD would make Babylon uninhabited and uninhabitable.  They would be inebriated and sleep forever without waking.  This is not soul death or annihilation, but never-ending punishment of judgment after death as Hebrews 9:27 details for us.  They would not awake to His presence in glory but separation in worse shame than Israel who joined in their sin.  They would be slaughtered like lambs, but not for a holy sacrifice.  Their desolation would not find forgiveness after the grave because of their false gods without life and rejection of worship of the only living God of hosts, the self-revealing God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The imminent judgment (no mere rumor) and fall of Babylon was proclaimed to God’s people living in the midst of this evil age that they might quickly come out of there for deliverance.  They were to separate themselves from sin and return to Him out of the world opposed to the LORD.  Judgment was coming on those worshiping false and lifeless gods of their own hands’ making, an event which would elicit joyful singing at her long-overdue defeat.  The sins of Babylon had caused Israel to sin and face death in judgment as well, so those who escaped that place were warned to flee immediately.  They were to remember their God and face their shame for following them instead of Him.  Their shame also was for abandoning the temple of worship in Jerusalem and allowing the ungodly to enter that sanctuary meant only for worshipers of the LORD.  Some of them left behind should have kept it holy instead of running to Egypt for vain protection as Jeremiah chapter 46 describes.  There is shame in worshiping the idols of our making, but for God’s people there is forgiveness and grace in Christ alone who took on all of our sin and offers life in Him and no other.  We are to be like Daniel and not bow to the idols of this world (Daniel 3:12) but worship God alone in spirit and truth as John 4:24 tells us. 

Judgment, Destruction, and Desolation

Jeremiah 51:20-35

20 "You are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms;

21 With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
22 With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
With you I will break in pieces old and young;
With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
23 With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.

24 "And I will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight," says the LORD.

25 "Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
Who destroys all the earth," says the LORD.
"And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
And make you a burnt mountain.

26 They shall not take from you a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for a foundation,
But you shall be desolate forever," says the LORD.

27 Set up a banner in the land,
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Prepare the nations against her,
Call the kingdoms together against her:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a general against her;
Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.

28 Prepare against her the nations,
With the kings of the Medes,
Its governors and all its rulers,
All the land of his dominion.

29 And the land will tremble and sorrow;
For every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,
To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.

30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
They became like women;
They have burned her dwelling places,
The bars of her gate are broken.

31 One runner will run to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;
32 The passages are blocked,
The reeds they have burned with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.

33 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
"The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
When it is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
And the time of her harvest will come."

34 "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
Has devoured me, he has crushed me;
He has made me an empty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.

35 Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,"
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
"And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!"
Jerusalem will say.

Babylon was to answer for her sin against God’s people by her judgment and destruction.  Cyrus of Persia was God’s war club to beat Babylon into defeat.  We often see haw God often uses one nation against another to deal with their sin as His instruments of righteous judgment, and this is detailed for us here in this passage.  He breaks up those set against His chosen ones as of Zion and as of all in the Messiah to come when they was written.  God was against this mountainous nation who rolled over others, especially His own, and now proclaimed their judgment and destruction unto desolation.  He rallied the nations under Persia of the Medes to assault that land, “For every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,”  until they were defeated and laid down all their defensive arms.  He struck terror into Babylon in her defeat just as He will in the final battle at the end of time (Revelation 14:8, 18:2, 19-20).  Babylon would be threshed and burned for her idolatrous sin against the LORD and His people at last.  Zion who had been devoured and emptied as worthless enough to spit out would see vengeance taken by the LORD on her (Revelation 6:10) and all who supported her as the Chaldeans did.  This is how it will be in the end as well when all those opposed to Christ and His chosen ones are defeated and made desolate in the final righteous judgment.  May all who read Jeremiah’s words take heed and turn from sin to the Lord before that great and terrible day.  

Flee Idolatry!

Jeremiah 51:1-19

1 Thus says the LORD:
"Behold, I will raise up against Babylon,
Against those who dwell in Leb Kamai,
A destroying wind.
2 And I will send winnowers to Babylon,
Who shall winnow her and empty her land.
For in the day of doom
They shall be against her all around.

3 Against her let the archer bend his bow,
And lift himself up against her in his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
Utterly destroy all her army.
4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
And those thrust through in her streets.

5 For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah,
By his God, the LORD of hosts,
Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel."

6 Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And every one save his life!
Do not be cut off in her iniquity,
For this is the time of the LORD's vengeance;
He shall recompense her.

7 Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD's hand,
That made all the earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
Therefore the nations are deranged.

8 Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed.
Wail for her!
Take balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
9 We would have healed Babylon,
But she is not healed.
Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country;
For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.

10 The LORD has revealed our righteousness.
Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.

11 Make the arrows bright!
Gather the shields!
The LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,
Because it is the vengeance of the LORD,
The vengeance for His temple.

12 Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon;
Make the guard strong,
Set up the watchmen,
Prepare the ambushes.
For the LORD has both devised and done
What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your covetousness.

14 The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself:
"Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts,
And they shall lift up a shout against you."

15 He has made the earth by His power;
He has established the world by His wisdom,
And stretched out the heaven by His understanding.
16 When He utters His voice—
There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:
"He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightnings for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries."

17 Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;
Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;
For his molded image is falsehood
And there is no breath in them.
18 They are futile, a work of errors;
In the time of their punishment they shall perish.

19 The Portion of Jacob is not like them,
For He is the Maker of all things;
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.
The LORD of hosts is His name.

Flee idolatry!  Like Babylon, we are warned to flee all forms of idolatry and run into worship of the Lord of lords and King of kings instead before judgment falls.  Babylon was destroyed after God winnowed her chaff into His blowing wind of destruction as the parable in Luke 3:17 reminds us.  God’s people of Israel had been sinful, but they were not utterly forsaken as it is written in verse 5 here.  Babylon was not forgiven because she was not of His people.  Sin by itself is not what condemns or the lack of it which saves; it is God’s calling and His choosing which determines our acceptance.  The nations all around Babylon had drunk of her intoxicating wine (Revelation 14:8) of spiritual fornication, of idolatry and rejection of the LORD, and went foolishly mad as a result.  She suddenly fell and was destroyed with no hope of healing because of that rejection of God and all His righteousness as He revealed the righteousness of His people in Himself, just as we now understand more fully that imputation we have in Christ alone.  God’s vengeance for the desecration and destruction of His temple in Jerusalem was bad enough, but consider the end of all who desecrate the temples of us all where He would dwell in if not filled with idols of rejection.  The judgment against Babylon was unstoppable no matter how much military might tried to defend her and her prideful and covetous mindset.  God’s omnipotence in creation is spoken through Jeremiah for all to hear and understanding who He is and that He is able to do exactly as He says in His power, wisdom, and understanding.  There is none like Him, none who compare, certainly not lifeless carved idols representing nonexistent deities.  No, only the LORD of hosts who made all things and who gives life as He wills to these chosen and called out to Himself for an inheritance, only He is to be worshiped.  None other.  Do we then carve out idols to desecrate these temples where He lives (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 6:19-20, 2 Corinthians 6:16), idols of immortality and hate and covetousness?  We have been delivered out of Babylon and so should live in thankful obedience to His will according to his word. 

The Captive’s Redeemer is Strong

Jeremiah 50:33-46

33 Thus says the LORD of hosts:
"The children of Israel were oppressed,
Along with the children of Judah;
All who took them captive have held them fast;
They have refused to let them go.

34 Their Redeemer is strong;
The LORD of hosts is His name.
He will thoroughly plead their case,
That He may give rest to the land,
And disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35 "A sword is against the Chaldeans," says the LORD,
"Against the inhabitants of Babylon,
And against her princes and her wise men.

36 A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools.
A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.
37 A sword is against their horses,
Against their chariots,
And against all the mixed peoples who are in her midst;
And they will become like women.
A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed.
38 A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up.
For it is the land of carved images,
And they are insane with their idols.

39 "Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals,
And the ostriches shall dwell in it.
It shall be inhabited no more forever,
Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors," says the LORD,
"So no one shall reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it.

41 "Behold, a people shall come from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.
42 They shall hold the bow and the lance;
They are cruel and shall not show mercy.
Their voice shall roar like the sea;
They shall ride on horses,
Set in array, like a man for the battle,
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

43 "The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
And his hands grow feeble;
Anguish has taken hold of him,
Pangs as of a woman in childbirth.

44 "Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the Jordan
Against the dwelling place 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?
Who will arraign Me?
And who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?"

45 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that He has taken against Babylon,
And His purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans:
Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;
Surely He will make their dwelling place desolate with them.
46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon
The earth trembles,
And the cry is heard among the nations.

The Redeemer of the captives is strong.  The redeemed of the Lord say so.  This deliverance from Babylon is a picture and type of God’s deliverance of His remnant of all nations out of the world and its sinful state (Galatians 1:4) taken into the bondage of sin’s captivity.  Israel was captured and enslaved to their own idols, only to be handed over to Babylon under the influence and imprisonment of their false gods.  Ah, but the Redeemer of God’s people is strong who will plead their case as their sentence is taken by another and He would then give them rest in Himself.  The parallel with our salvation in grace is not to be ignored or explained away, for the LORD was giving a veiled explanation of the gospel here, the mystery to be later revealed in the one taking our just punishment as advocate and a prisoner exchange to accept our sentence of death that we might live through His death to kill our sin and its due punishment (Romans 6:23).  God’s sword was set against Babylon foolish fortune tellers of occult guidance, against their imagined military might, against their compromises in marriage and lust for wealth, and against all carved images of their imaginary gods they worshipped.  He was against all ungodliness opposed to Him in other words.  He would utterly rout and defeat them so that there would only be stories left as warnings to tell afterwards.  Yes, just as Babylon had leveraged their pride to overthrow God’s people, so would He call the Persians from the north to decimate the oppressor of Israel.  This word of the LORD through Jeremiah sent fear to the core of the king of Babylon as the attack would come like a lion to devour them.  Who can withstand the LORD God?  He is unlike any false god of the feeble imagination of the created man who was made in the image of the true God.  Nobody can assemble against Him nor shepherd His people away from His calling His gathering them to Himself.  The counsel of the LORD shall always stand (Proverbs 19:21, Isaiah 46:10-11), just as it did against Babylon and against Egypt and so many others opposed to Him and His chosen ones.  The earth will tremble again as it did when Babylon was taken down when the adversary of us all is utterly defeated and cast down (Revelation 12:10-11, 20:10) into eternal punishment in the lake of fire.  We can take rest in the Lord Jesus Christ in this word of comfort in His calling and keeping.  Amen and amen! 

Contentious Pride Leads to a Great Fall

Jeremiah 50:18-32

18 Therefore thus says 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.
19 But I will bring back Israel to his home,
And he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan;
His soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.

20 In those days and in that time," says the LORD,
"The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none;
And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found;
For I will pardon those whom I preserve.

21 "Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it,
And against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Waste and utterly destroy them," says the LORD,
"And do according to all that I have commanded you.
22 A sound of battle is in the land,
And of great destruction.
23 How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken!
How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!

24 I have laid a snare for you;
You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon,
And you were not aware;
You have been found and also caught,
Because you have contended against the LORD.

25 The LORD has opened His armory,
And has brought out the weapons of His indignation;
For this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from the farthest border;
Open her storehouses;
Cast her up as heaps of ruins,
And destroy her utterly;
Let nothing of her be left.

27 Slay all her bulls,
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them!
For their day has come, the time of their punishment.

28 The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon
Declares in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God,
The vengeance of His temple.

29 "Call together the archers against Babylon.
All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around;
Let none of them escape.
Repay her according to her work;
According to all she has done, do to her;
For she has been proud against the LORD,
Against the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets,
And all her men of war shall be cut off in that day," says the LORD.

31 "Behold, I am against you,
O most haughty one!" says the Lord GOD of hosts;
"For your day has come,
The time that I will punish you.
32 The most proud shall stumble and fall,
And no one will raise him up;
I will kindle a fire in his cities,
And it will devour all around him."

We see how the contentious pride of Babylonia led to their judgment and a great fall for fighting against the people of the LORD and Himself with their false gods.  They captured Israel and influenced her with those idols and did so in defiance and indifference to worship of the living God of hosts.  In defeating Babylon, God would also bring back the captives out of their bondage to their land and His temple which the invaders destroyed.  As Micah 7:19 and Isaiah 1:9 remind, God not only saves a remnant of His people from the captivity of bondage to sin, but applies His forgiveness eternally in grace as iniquity is removed and His pardon preserves.  This is a picture and type of the eternal salvation to be revealed for all His people in Christ to come, not for Israel alone.  We can learn much of God’s character and plan of salvation for His chosen from all of scripture in each picture.  Destruction and desolation was cast for the enemies of God’s chosen people as described in the example of Babylon.  They had fought against the LORD and of course had failed completely as told by Jeremiah even before troops entered their land and fought against them.  The armory supporting this war effort was God’s own indignation of His wrath (Romans 1:18, Hebrews 10:27, Revelation 14:10) which supplied the forever fighting against the enemy, much like the invaders of Ukraine in our present day who find a defensive force armored to repel them, only God’s armory is infinitely greater.  His wrath defeated the enemy then and will win out in the end of time as those opposed to Him and His people are subdued by the God-given weapons of His warfare and ours as His forces (2 Corinthians 10:4-6).  God’s vengeance against Babylon was also for the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem as a symbol of His worship and meeting place with His people as verse 28  and Psalm 137:7-8 tell us.  God defends His honor, worship, and praise.  Babylon as representative of all sinners rejecting God had felt that vengeance through being repaid in like manner for her works of evil and destruction.  She was proudly set against the Holy One and His works and suffered the inevitable consequences of such haughtiness.  Punishment brought the fall of pride from which there was no recovery.  Likewise, in the day of final judgment those brought down for their unrepentant hearts will find no more opportunity for deliverance (Revelation 9:6, Hebrews 9:27-28).  There is only deliverance for God’s chosen in Christ Jesus.  Resisting Him is only contentious pride leading to a great fall.  Do not fight against God, but be found in Him in repentance and trust in Him and His work before that day and not with those in Babylon who are sentenced forever to destruction! 

Weeping of Lost Sheep

Jeremiah 50:1-17 

1 The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 "Declare among the nations,
Proclaim, and set up a standard;
Proclaim—do not conceal it—
Say, 'Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed.
Merodach is broken in pieces;
Her idols are humiliated,
Her images are broken in pieces.'

3 For out of the north a nation comes up against her,
Which shall make her land desolate,
And no one shall dwell therein.
They shall move, they shall depart,
Both man and beast.

4 "In those days and in that time," says the LORD,
"The children of Israel shall come,
They and the children of Judah together;
With continual weeping they shall come,
And seek the LORD their God.

5 They shall ask the way to Zion,
With their faces toward it, saying,
'Come and let us join ourselves to the LORD
In a perpetual covenant
That will not be forgotten.'

6 "My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray;
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place.

7 All who found them have devoured them;
And their adversaries said, We have not offended,
Because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice,
The LORD, the hope of their fathers.'

8 "Move from the midst of Babylon,
Go out of the land of the Chaldeans;
And be like the rams before the flocks.

9 For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon
An assembly of great nations from the north country,
And they shall array themselves against her;
From there she shall be captured.
Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior;
None shall return in vain.
10 And Chaldea shall become plunder;
All who plunder her shall be satisfied," says the LORD.

11 "Because you were glad, because you rejoiced,
You destroyers of My heritage,
Because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain,
And you bellow like bulls,
12 Your mother shall be deeply ashamed;
She who bore you shall be ashamed.
Behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness,
A dry land and a desert.

13 Because of the wrath of the LORD
She shall not be inhabited,
But she shall be wholly desolate.
Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified
And hiss at all her plagues.

14 "Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around,
All you who bend the bow;
Shoot at her, spare no arrows,
For she has sinned against the LORD.

15 Shout against her all around;
She has given her hand,
Her foundations have fallen,
Her walls are thrown down;
For it is the vengeance of the LORD.
Take vengeance on her.

As she has done, so do to her.

16 Cut off the sower from Babylon,
And him who handles the sickle at harvest time.
For fear of the oppressing sword
Everyone shall turn to his own people,
And everyone shall flee to his own land.

17 "Israel is like scattered sheep;
The lions have driven him away.
First the king of Assyria devoured him;
Now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones."

You can almost hear the weeping of the lost sheep of God’s people in the words of the weeping prophet here in the judgment against Babylon and Babylonia where they were taken into captivity for their sin (Acts 7:7).  The proclamation of God was publicly broadcast for all to hear of the impending judgment on Babylon and her false gods which were mere lifeless and powerless carvings of wood and stone.  Medes of Persia from the north (Isaiah 13:11, 17) would be God’s tool to decimate the ungodly who were used to discipline the people of the LORD but who also rejected Him.  They would be held accountable.  As these things were happening, Israel was weeping and seeking the LORD once more as they learned a hard lesson on rejecting Him.  They even cried out together to make an eternal covenant with Him that they would not forget this time.  They wanted Union with God as His own once more, and God said that they were led astray by their leaders who shepherded them badly away from Him.  They were misled in the mountains (Jeremiah 2:20) from worship of one false god to another and burned incense in the unfaithfulness of spiritual harlotry.  They were truly sheep without a shepherd who forgot their resting place was in the LORD alone.  Even their enemies considered this a justification to attack Israel for their sin and rejection of hope in their God, which is how they ended up in Babylon.  Yet Babylon was judged for destroying the apple of God's eye who were His heritage and would be overrun from Persia out of the north.  In the end of time, all who set themselves against God’s people in Christ will likewise be punished by the chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4) for what they do to His own sheep from every nation and not just Israel (2 Thessalonians 1:5, 8-9, Revelation 6:10).  The utter desolation of Babylon was nothing compared to that to come for all those who rejected Him and refuse to repent of their sin.  This is a sobering warning to all who read these words of Jeremiah.  God’s vengeance will be swift and everlasting for the sin of rejecting Him in disbelief and disobedience.  All who reject Him will be rejected - “As she has done, so do to her.”  The solution is turning to Christ in trust as John 6:29 describes the only work we can do to be saved from the wrath to come (Revelation 6:17, 1 Thessalonians 1:10).  Israel was like a flock of sheep scattered who needed the Shepherd and Overseer (1 Peter 2:25) of their souls to come, just as we all do.  His once lost weeping sheep hear His voice and follow with rejoicing for being found in place of their former rejection of Him (John 10:3, 27). 

Judgment on the Nations

Jeremiah 49:23-39

23 Against Damascus.

"Hamath and Arpad are shamed,
For they have heard bad news.
They are fainthearted;
There is trouble on the sea;
It cannot be quiet.

24 Damascus has grown feeble;
She turns to flee,
And fear has seized her.
Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in labor.

25 Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy?
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets,
And all the men of war shall be cut off in that day," says the LORD of hosts.

27 "I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,
And it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad."

28 Against Kedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon shall strike.

Thus says the LORD:
"Arise, go up to Kedar,
And devastate the men of the East!

29 Their tents and their flocks they shall take away.
They shall take for themselves their curtains,
All their vessels and their camels;
And they shall cry out to them,
'Fear is on every side!'

30 "Flee, get far away! Dwell in the depths,
O inhabitants of Hazor!" says the LORD.
"For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you,
And has conceived a plan against you.

31 "Arise, go up to the wealthy nation that dwells securely," says the LORD,
"Which has neither gates nor bars,
Dwelling alone.
32 Their camels shall be for booty,
And the multitude of their cattle for plunder.
I will scatter to all winds those in the farthest corners,
And I will bring their calamity from all its sides," says the LORD.

33 "Hazor shall be a dwelling for jackals, a desolation forever;
No one shall reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it."

34 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, 35 "Thus says the LORD of hosts:

'Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,
The foremost of their might.
36 Against Elam I will bring the four winds
From the four quarters of heaven,
And scatter them toward all those winds;
There shall be no nations where the outcasts of Elam will not go.

37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies
And before those who seek their life.
I will bring disaster upon them,
My fierce anger,' says the LORD;
'And I will send the sword after them
Until I have consumed them.

38 I will set My throne in Elam,
And will destroy from there the king and the princes,' says the LORD.
39 'But it shall come to pass in the latter days:
I will bring back the captives of Elam,' says the LORD."

Three more nations and peoples were given judgment by God through Jeremiah, Damascus (Syria), Kedar (descendants of Ishmael) with Hazor of Arabia, and Elam (descendants from Shem who later would help overthrow Babylon).  This mixture of peoples under judgment only had one thing in common, that they were sinful and set against the people of the LORD.  Jeremiah pronounced God’s sentence on them with only the hope of Edom’s eventual rescue from captivity.  The others of Arabia and Syria, outside God’s family, were met with destruction and an empty end.  Damascus was driven to fear and fire for the palaces of Ben-Hadad "son of the false god Hadad" who had allied with Israel before.  Kedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor of Palestine or Arabia were to be overrun by eastern armies, that is, Babylonian under Nebuchadnezzar.  Fear would defe them and there would be nothing left of their land but utter desolation by God’s hand of judgment.  As for Elam, they were broken and scattered throughout many nations.  The wrath of God would bring disaster and their leaders would be done away with.  However, later God would bring them back out of captivity as He would with Moab in Jeremiah 48:47.  We see there is judgment for sin and also grace for deliverance in these words of the LORD through Jeremiah against these peoples just as with Moab.  This gives us hope, not as by our nationalities, but according to God’s redeeming grace to call and reconcile out of all nations (Acts 17:26, Colossians 1:19-20, Romans 1:5, 16:26, Revelation 5:9) according to His will.  Those chosen for mercy (Romans 9:23) are freed from captivity which is the bondage of sin, while those condemned as vessels of destruction (Romans 9:22) for unrepentant and hardened hearts will face the judgment which all sons and daughters of Adam deserve (Romans 3:23, 6:23).  May we be found in His atoning grace like Elam out of the nations by His calling.