Context No. 3218 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 51:24-32: in context

24“I will give to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight,” says the LORD. 25“Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain,” says the LORD, “which destroys all the earth. I will stretch out my hand on you, roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain. 26They won’t take a cornerstone from you, nor a stone for foundations; but you will be desolate forever,” says the LORD. 27“Set up a standard in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her! Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz! Appoint a marshal against her! Cause the horses to come up as the swarming locusts! 28Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion! 29The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant. 30The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting, they remain in their strongholds. Their might has failed. They have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire. Her bars are broken. 31One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter. 32So the passages are seized. They have burned the reeds with fire. The men of war are frightened.”

God pronounces judgment on Babylon, which he calls the destroying mountain that destroys all the earth. I am against you, he says; I will make you a burned-out mountain, desolate forever. He summons the nations against her: set up a banner, blow the trumpet, prepare the kingdoms. Her warriors have stopped fighting, her city is taken from every side.

Babylon, the empire that had crushed nations and destroyed Jerusalem, is now the target of God's judgment. God repays her for all the evil done in Zion. There is a sober justice here: even the powers that seem permanent and unassailable are brought down, their soldiers' courage failing, their city taken. And it is God who summons the nations against her. No empire built on the destruction of others stands forever before the God who sees. The oppressor's day, however long it seems to be delayed, does finally come.

Do I trust that even the powers that seem permanent, built on injustice, will answer to God, whose justice reaches every oppressor in time?

Sources

Jeremiah 51:25: "Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain, which destroys all the earth."
Jeremiah 51:24: "I will give to Babylon... all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says the LORD."
Revelation 18:2: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great."