Jeremiah 51:27, commentary and pictures

The verse is God's signal-call summoning Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz with the nations to prepare war against Babylon, and the Medes and Persians under Cyrus are the instruments raised to take her on every quarter. That call was fulfilled in Belshazzar's night when the kingdom was numbered and finished, the Euphrates was lowered for soldiers to enter through the river-bed, the city was taken by surprise amid revelry, Belshazzar was slain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom at about sixty-two years old. Her overthrow was not completed by that capture alone but came ultimately as she sank to rise no more, becoming heaps, pools of water, a dwelling for dragons and wild beasts, and a burnt mountain, all literally true at once in different parts of the ruins. The judgment on literal Babylon types the fate of great mystical Babylon of the last days, with a sudden transition from type to antitype reaching emphatically to the day of the Lord and the final punishment of the ungodly. So the ancient call to raise the signal and sound the trumpet is now the call for God's servants to proclaim present truth and the last gospel message to every nation until the overthrow of antitypical Babylon draws near, a lesson for cities and people who forget and defy God to repent and do right.

Words and Ancient Setting

Jeremiah 51:27 belongs to the prophecies against foreign nations in Jeremiah 46-51, which are directed especially against Babylon. The name Ararat is retained in the Hebrew where the common version renders the place Armenia. Here Ararat refers to the kingdom of Grusien in the Caucasus. The verse summons the nations to prepare for war against Babylon, raising a signal and sounding a trumpet to gather them, and names Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz as part of the force gathered for her defeat. Those kingdoms are called against her to take her on every quarter, and the Medes and Persians under Cyrus are identified as the instruments who would accomplish it.

The verse is part of the great burden of prophecy against Babylon uttered many years before its fall, to be set against the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who did not know the prophecy as evidence of its fulfillment. It concerns the downfall of Babylon the head of gold before the silver Persian empire takes its place in succession. That call was fulfilled in Belshazzar's night when the kingdom was numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, and divided and given to the Medes and Persians. The Euphrates was lowered so soldiers could enter through the river-bed where it entered and left the walls, the city was taken by surprise amid drunken revelry with no alarm given, Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was slain in that night, and Darius the Median took the kingdom being about sixty-two years old.

Jeremiah 50 and 51 describe Babylon's persecution of God's people and show that she treated them cruelly. Paganism is the first division of spiritual Babylon persecuting those loyal to God. In this historical frame Babylon's overthrow of Jerusalem marks the beginning of the final overthrow of temporal rule at God's earthly center of power.

Prophecy and Its Fulfillment

The summons to the nations announces the fall of the Babylonian empire and not merely the capture of the city of Babylon, striking suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. That overthrow by the Persians did not complete the destruction foretold, which came ultimately as the city gradually fell into decay and became desolate. The end declared is utter overthrow leaving Babylon desolate, to become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, pools of water, and a burnt mountain.

These seemingly contradictory conditions are all literally true at once in different parts of the ruins, with wild beasts crying in one part, bittern pools and marsh in another, dry waste and burning plain in another, and burnt vitrified heaps in another, proving the sure word of prophecy against infidel objection. The prophecy declared that Babylon would sink and not rise again. After she refused to be healed and her sins mounted up to heaven inviting the foretold stroke of wrath, God's judgments were visited upon her and she fell to rise no more.

The verse stands as part of the detailed prophecy of Babylon's doom whose fulfillment is witnessed by the ruins of the city beside the Euphrates. That prophecy represents both the ancient empire and mystical Babylon. The judgment upon literal Babylon was pronounced along with Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom and Syria among the kingdoms surrounding Israel judged from Jeremiah 46 onward, and that judgment upon literal Babylon types the fate of Babylon the great prophesied in Revelation, the great mystical Babylon of the last days, and serves as a comparison for her final destruction.

The prophecy on the fate of ancient Babylon makes a sudden transition from type to antitype and has a double fulfillment. It applied primarily and typically to literal Babylon humbled by the nations raised against her, and reaches beyond ancient Babylon to antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth, applying emphatically to the day of the Lord. So it does not predict a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates followed by sudden destruction.

Judgment and Final Warning

Jeremiah 51:27 belongs to Jeremiah's divine message warning Babylon of impending judgment and offering mercy, a warning that was ignored so that Babylon was not healed. The signal to be raised and the trumpet to be sounded to summon the nations against Babylon present the invasion as God's punishment of Babylon for its sins and pride, ending in her overthrow and desolation. The kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz are named as part of the force gathered for her defeat, called to take her on every quarter, and that call was fulfilled in Belshazzar's night when the kingdom was numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, and divided and given to the Medes and Persians, so that Babylon is taken and Babylon is fallen. No might or scheme or power or wealth of man could save a city or nation that sowed within herself the seeds of error, confusion, destruction, and death.

The fall of Babylon, announced by a call to the nations to gather against her, stands as a lesson for cities and people who forget and defy God. That warning of Babylon's doom is applied to San Francisco in her calamity and to other cities, including New York and Chicago, whose open wickedness invites judgment. It calls people to repent and do right. The call for God's servants before the fall of ancient Babylon to raise a signal and sound a trumpet among the nations is applied to God's people in the final days as the overthrow of antitypical Babylon draws near. They are to proclaim present truth and the last gospel message throughout the world, until every nation and island has heard it, including in the Caucasus district where Ararat names the kingdom of Grusien in the Caucasus.

After ancient Babylon refused to be healed and her sins mounted up to heaven inviting the foretold stroke of wrath, God's judgments were visited upon her and she fell to rise no more. That destruction of a great world kingdom is a type and vivid portrayal of the destruction to be visited upon modern Babylon, the confused last-day religious world. The prophecy on ancient Babylon makes a sudden transition from type to antitype and has a double fulfillment, applying primarily and typically to literal Babylon humbled by the nations raised against her, and applying emphatically to the day of the Lord. Then modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished in the final punishment of the ungodly, in the day when God shall finally and forever close up all earthly accounts immediately preceding and in connection with the day of Christ and the end of the world.