And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.
It foretells that Babylon would become piled ruins haunted by wild creatures, an object of astonishment and scorn, left without any inhabitant. That desolation did not come in a single moment when Persia overthrew it, but after its height of glory it gradually fell into decay until abandoned. The shapeless mounds by the Euphrates, silent and empty where gold and palaces once stood, bear witness that the word was fulfilled literally. The same doom portrays the final destruction to be visited upon modern mystical Babylon and the whole earth when God closes all earthly accounts. Made when Babylon was the wonder of the world and going far beyond a general fall into circumstantial detail, its exact fulfillment proves that one omniscient mind dictated the Bible.
Words and Judgment Pronounced
Babylon was divinely judged to become piled heaps of ruins, deserted and left without any inhabitant, a dwelling for dragons and wild creatures, and an object of astonishment, horror, hissing and scorn. The desolation foretold was complete, reducing the city to ruined heaps with no voice of habitation remaining. That destruction was to leave the city ultimately desolate and uninhabited, not to annihilate it utterly at the moment the Persians overthrew it; after reaching the height of its glory it gradually fell into decay until the prophecy stood literally fulfilled.
The prediction was uttered many years before the fall as a leading part of the great burden of prophecy against Babylon. It belonged to the prophecies of her capture and downfall, announcing the fall of the head of gold before the silver empire took its place in succession onward.
The ruin came for idolatry, for the prodigious wickedness of the Chaldeans, for pride, boundless luxury, corrupt morals and idol worship in the city that was the pride of the Chaldees. It was the final result of pride and of the attempt to gain power by joining religion with the state. Babylon refused God's healing message, and when she refused to be healed and her sins mounted up to heaven the foretold stroke of wrath fell and she fell to rise no more.
The fall of city and empire together came suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. It came on the night the weak, dissolute, riotous, idolatrous and blasphemous king feasted to Babylon's gods and drank from the plundered vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, when God numbered his kingdom and finished it, weighed him and found him wanting, and divided his kingdom to the Medes and Persians, and Babylon was taken on every quarter and fell. 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.
History and Literal Fulfillment
The great heap of ruins by the Euphrates, with owls dwelling among its heaps, bears witness that the prophecy was fulfilled literally and stands as a lasting witness to the truth of prophecy. Literal Babylon on the plain of Shinar became shapeless piles of ruin and heaps of rubbish strewn over broken ground in a vast silent marsh, a lone waste wilderness with no inhabitant and no voice of gladness or song. Where vast treasures of gold and silver were once heaped together there are now only piles of ruins, with immense mounds of temples, palaces, and human dwellings of every kind seen everywhere in long and varied lines, and only the moaning breeze and the sigh of the lone willow over dim huge outlines.
Though her palaces were glorious and her shrines were of worked gold, including the temple of Merodach and the old house of Belus, and though countless nations crowded her busy streets and mirth filled her homes, her river failed her and her gods of stone could not help. At midnight the Persian came in among the crowd and entered by her open gates while prophets had warned of judgment even in her festival halls and an angel hand had written her doom on the palace wall, and she was gone. Her place on earth does not remain and she has no memorial, and only darkness and ruin can be found where she was, never Babylon itself, for she completely and permanently disappeared.
The city was built on a fertile plain, but its immense walls, palaces, temples, and hanging gardens made it look from a distance like a mountain. It would be left as piled ruins like a burnt-out mountain, empty of people and with no brick or stone fit to reuse for building. The ruin came in stages, beginning when Cyrus son of Mandane took the city while it was full of revelry and mirth, dance and song, many banquets and joyous throngs, carefree and unprepared, his soldiers climbing tower and citadel and coming like the death-angel, and then moved the imperial seat to Susa. After Babylon rebelled in 518 B.C. Darius brought his whole force against it and broke down its hundred gates and walls, removing its bronze gates and lowering its walls.
Seleucus Nicator emptied it of people in 294 B.C. and transferred inhabitants and materials to a nearby city. Later plundering, failed rebuilding, burning, and long neglect left it in ruins, at one time used as a wild-beast enclosure, until the ancient city nearly disappeared. The city had to be abandoned for the prophecy to be fulfilled, and its site had been lost from view for centuries before excavations uncovered it and revealed its history. The proud city of Nimrod on the plain of Shinar, with sky-high spires, temple of Baal, broad Euphrates, walls, towers, and gates of brass, was brought to an end by Heaven's command against which its gods gave no help.
The end came on Belshazzar when his feast drowned its senses in wine and drank from the cups of the house of the Lord, and the hand on the wall wrote his fall in fire, sweeping the revelers from the earth by the breath of God's word. Its glory, grandeur, and beauty are gone forever, left empty of people as a wonder, where the satyr dances and the lizard passes over its entry. The fall to Persia stripped away all her prestige and left her an object of astonishment and derisive hissing. So long as Babylon, the glory of kingdoms and praise of the whole earth, kept her independence with her vast buildings, prestige of antiquity, wealth, learning, and ancient grand religious system, she stood first in the world in honor, dignity, and reputation, haughty and contemptuous to the last.
The Persian king could not stand before his subjects as indisputably foremost until he had humbled her pride and arrogance in the dust. With the fall of the great city the whole fabric of Semitic greatness was shattered, all her prestige vanished, and Persia stepped manifestly into the place Assyria had occupied for centuries as absolute and unrivaled mistress of Western Asia. In that historical setting, ruling Asia meant ruling the world.
Type of End-Time Babylon
The prophecy concerns both the ancient empire and Babylon as a type of mystical Babylon, for the literal Babylon of Jeremiah's day was a type of the great mystical Babylon of the present day. It pronounces the doom of Babylon among the kingdoms surrounding Israel and in that shows the fate of Babylon the great prophesied in Revelation.
The verse is double prophecy, applying not only to the ancient city and empire but also to antitypical Babylon. By sudden transition from type to antitype it also foretells the day of the Lord in which modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished. That antitypical Babylon is the great apostate harlot-system that rules over the nations of the earth.
It does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by a later sudden destruction, but the fall of the city together with the fall of the empire, a sudden fall while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. The final destruction of ancient Babylon in becoming heaps without inhabitant is a vivid portrayal of the destruction to be visited upon modern mystical Babylon when God finally and forever closes up all earthly accounts. Ancient Babylon refused to be healed, and when her sins mounted up to heaven the foretold stroke of wrath fell and she fell to rise no more; so the confused religious world of the last days, located in the time immediately preceding and connected with the day of Christ and the end of the world, will likewise fall under God's judgments.
The prophecy also depicts the desolation of modern Babylon and the whole earth, linked with the final judgments described in Revelation. It describes Babylon's literal desolation in being reduced to heaps, left as a place for wild creatures, and becoming an object of astonishment and scorn with no inhabitants, and is also part of the picture of the complete failure and destruction of Satan's kingdom. Ancient Babylon's fall did not end its spirit of rebellion against God, for its temporal kingdom was a type of modern spiritual Babylon. The chapter's judgment on Babylon accompanies God's defense of His people and the overthrow of the city and nation, as evidence of God's opposition to the religious system associated with Babylon.
Proof of Divine Foreknowledge
The prediction was uttered when Babylon stood as the wonder of the world, and it went far beyond a general announcement of fall by giving circumstantial details that seemed contradictory, that the city would cease to be inhabited and become heaps, pools of water frequented by waterfowl and yet a den of wild beasts, a haunt for dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, without inhabitant. Its capture and subsequent history fulfilled it literally, so exactly that its history could be copied from the prediction by changing verbs from future to past, proving miraculous foresight and divine inspiration rather than hap-hazard coincidence, and showing that God's word is fulfilled accurately. The fulfillment began when Cyrus moved the imperial seat to Susa, and after later rebellions Darius punished the city by breaking its gates and walls, removing its bronze gates and lowering its walls. The city had to be abandoned for the prophecy to be fulfilled, and through plundering, failed rebuilding, the emptying of its people in 294 B.C. with the transfer of inhabitants and materials to a nearby city, burning and long neglect it was left in ruins, at one time used as a wild-beast enclosure, until the ancient city nearly disappeared.
Its fulfillment is shown by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who did not know the prophecy and had no design to show its fulfillment, in predictions uttered many years before its fall concerning its downfall and succession by the silver empire. So long as that ruin remains before the eyes it proves that one omniscient Mind dictated the Bible, for its continuing ruined state exhibits divine omniscience. No man and no spirits can foretell the future, and prophecy came not by the will of man but as holy men spoke moved by the Holy Ghost.
Together with the lasting waste of Nineveh, the low state of Egypt, Tyre as a place for spreading nets, the scattering of Israel, the Gentile trampling of Jerusalem, and the predicted course of world empires, the continuing ruined state of Babylon stands as proof of divine foreknowledge.
Warning to Modern Cities
Babylon's desolation stands as a warning that a city that forgets and defies God faces ruin, and the lesson holds for modern cities as well as for ancient Babylon. Its coming ruin and abandonment, reduced to heaps and left as a desolate haunt associated with dragons without inhabitant, is the fate invited by open, defiant wickedness and warns cities that forget and defy God, including New York and Chicago. The prophecies describing Babylon's doom warn that a city defying God faces destruction if it ignores repeated warnings.
It foretells that Babylon would become piled ruins haunted by wild creatures, an object of astonishment and scorn, left without any inhabitant. That desolation did not come in a single moment when Persia overthrew it, but after its height of glory it gradually fell into decay until abandoned. The shapeless mounds by the Euphrates, silent and empty where gold and palaces once stood, bear witness that the word was fulfilled literally. The same doom portrays the final destruction to be visited upon modern mystical Babylon and the whole earth when God closes all earthly accounts. Made when Babylon was the wonder of the world and going far beyond a general fall into circumstantial detail, its exact fulfillment proves that one omniscient mind dictated the Bible.
Words and Judgment Pronounced
Babylon was divinely judged to become piled heaps of ruins, deserted and left without any inhabitant, a dwelling for dragons and wild creatures, and an object of astonishment, horror, hissing and scorn. The desolation foretold was complete, reducing the city to ruined heaps with no voice of habitation remaining. That destruction was to leave the city ultimately desolate and uninhabited, not to annihilate it utterly at the moment the Persians overthrew it; after reaching the height of its glory it gradually fell into decay until the prophecy stood literally fulfilled.
The prediction was uttered many years before the fall as a leading part of the great burden of prophecy against Babylon. It belonged to the prophecies of her capture and downfall, announcing the fall of the head of gold before the silver empire took its place in succession onward.
The ruin came for idolatry, for the prodigious wickedness of the Chaldeans, for pride, boundless luxury, corrupt morals and idol worship in the city that was the pride of the Chaldees. It was the final result of pride and of the attempt to gain power by joining religion with the state. Babylon refused God's healing message, and when she refused to be healed and her sins mounted up to heaven the foretold stroke of wrath fell and she fell to rise no more.
The fall of city and empire together came suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. It came on the night the weak, dissolute, riotous, idolatrous and blasphemous king feasted to Babylon's gods and drank from the plundered vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, when God numbered his kingdom and finished it, weighed him and found him wanting, and divided his kingdom to the Medes and Persians, and Babylon was taken on every quarter and fell. 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.
History and Literal Fulfillment
The great heap of ruins by the Euphrates, with owls dwelling among its heaps, bears witness that the prophecy was fulfilled literally and stands as a lasting witness to the truth of prophecy. Literal Babylon on the plain of Shinar became shapeless piles of ruin and heaps of rubbish strewn over broken ground in a vast silent marsh, a lone waste wilderness with no inhabitant and no voice of gladness or song. Where vast treasures of gold and silver were once heaped together there are now only piles of ruins, with immense mounds of temples, palaces, and human dwellings of every kind seen everywhere in long and varied lines, and only the moaning breeze and the sigh of the lone willow over dim huge outlines.
Though her palaces were glorious and her shrines were of worked gold, including the temple of Merodach and the old house of Belus, and though countless nations crowded her busy streets and mirth filled her homes, her river failed her and her gods of stone could not help. At midnight the Persian came in among the crowd and entered by her open gates while prophets had warned of judgment even in her festival halls and an angel hand had written her doom on the palace wall, and she was gone. Her place on earth does not remain and she has no memorial, and only darkness and ruin can be found where she was, never Babylon itself, for she completely and permanently disappeared.
The city was built on a fertile plain, but its immense walls, palaces, temples, and hanging gardens made it look from a distance like a mountain. It would be left as piled ruins like a burnt-out mountain, empty of people and with no brick or stone fit to reuse for building. The ruin came in stages, beginning when Cyrus son of Mandane took the city while it was full of revelry and mirth, dance and song, many banquets and joyous throngs, carefree and unprepared, his soldiers climbing tower and citadel and coming like the death-angel, and then moved the imperial seat to Susa. After Babylon rebelled in 518 B.C. Darius brought his whole force against it and broke down its hundred gates and walls, removing its bronze gates and lowering its walls.
Seleucus Nicator emptied it of people in 294 B.C. and transferred inhabitants and materials to a nearby city. Later plundering, failed rebuilding, burning, and long neglect left it in ruins, at one time used as a wild-beast enclosure, until the ancient city nearly disappeared. The city had to be abandoned for the prophecy to be fulfilled, and its site had been lost from view for centuries before excavations uncovered it and revealed its history. The proud city of Nimrod on the plain of Shinar, with sky-high spires, temple of Baal, broad Euphrates, walls, towers, and gates of brass, was brought to an end by Heaven's command against which its gods gave no help.
The end came on Belshazzar when his feast drowned its senses in wine and drank from the cups of the house of the Lord, and the hand on the wall wrote his fall in fire, sweeping the revelers from the earth by the breath of God's word. Its glory, grandeur, and beauty are gone forever, left empty of people as a wonder, where the satyr dances and the lizard passes over its entry. The fall to Persia stripped away all her prestige and left her an object of astonishment and derisive hissing. So long as Babylon, the glory of kingdoms and praise of the whole earth, kept her independence with her vast buildings, prestige of antiquity, wealth, learning, and ancient grand religious system, she stood first in the world in honor, dignity, and reputation, haughty and contemptuous to the last.
The Persian king could not stand before his subjects as indisputably foremost until he had humbled her pride and arrogance in the dust. With the fall of the great city the whole fabric of Semitic greatness was shattered, all her prestige vanished, and Persia stepped manifestly into the place Assyria had occupied for centuries as absolute and unrivaled mistress of Western Asia. In that historical setting, ruling Asia meant ruling the world.
Type of End-Time Babylon
The prophecy concerns both the ancient empire and Babylon as a type of mystical Babylon, for the literal Babylon of Jeremiah's day was a type of the great mystical Babylon of the present day. It pronounces the doom of Babylon among the kingdoms surrounding Israel and in that shows the fate of Babylon the great prophesied in Revelation.
The verse is double prophecy, applying not only to the ancient city and empire but also to antitypical Babylon. By sudden transition from type to antitype it also foretells the day of the Lord in which modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished. That antitypical Babylon is the great apostate harlot-system that rules over the nations of the earth.
It does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by a later sudden destruction, but the fall of the city together with the fall of the empire, a sudden fall while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. The final destruction of ancient Babylon in becoming heaps without inhabitant is a vivid portrayal of the destruction to be visited upon modern mystical Babylon when God finally and forever closes up all earthly accounts. Ancient Babylon refused to be healed, and when her sins mounted up to heaven the foretold stroke of wrath fell and she fell to rise no more; so the confused religious world of the last days, located in the time immediately preceding and connected with the day of Christ and the end of the world, will likewise fall under God's judgments.
The prophecy also depicts the desolation of modern Babylon and the whole earth, linked with the final judgments described in Revelation. It describes Babylon's literal desolation in being reduced to heaps, left as a place for wild creatures, and becoming an object of astonishment and scorn with no inhabitants, and is also part of the picture of the complete failure and destruction of Satan's kingdom. Ancient Babylon's fall did not end its spirit of rebellion against God, for its temporal kingdom was a type of modern spiritual Babylon. The chapter's judgment on Babylon accompanies God's defense of His people and the overthrow of the city and nation, as evidence of God's opposition to the religious system associated with Babylon.
Proof of Divine Foreknowledge
The prediction was uttered when Babylon stood as the wonder of the world, and it went far beyond a general announcement of fall by giving circumstantial details that seemed contradictory, that the city would cease to be inhabited and become heaps, pools of water frequented by waterfowl and yet a den of wild beasts, a haunt for dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, without inhabitant. Its capture and subsequent history fulfilled it literally, so exactly that its history could be copied from the prediction by changing verbs from future to past, proving miraculous foresight and divine inspiration rather than hap-hazard coincidence, and showing that God's word is fulfilled accurately. The fulfillment began when Cyrus moved the imperial seat to Susa, and after later rebellions Darius punished the city by breaking its gates and walls, removing its bronze gates and lowering its walls. The city had to be abandoned for the prophecy to be fulfilled, and through plundering, failed rebuilding, the emptying of its people in 294 B.C. with the transfer of inhabitants and materials to a nearby city, burning and long neglect it was left in ruins, at one time used as a wild-beast enclosure, until the ancient city nearly disappeared.
Its fulfillment is shown by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who did not know the prophecy and had no design to show its fulfillment, in predictions uttered many years before its fall concerning its downfall and succession by the silver empire. So long as that ruin remains before the eyes it proves that one omniscient Mind dictated the Bible, for its continuing ruined state exhibits divine omniscience. No man and no spirits can foretell the future, and prophecy came not by the will of man but as holy men spoke moved by the Holy Ghost.
Together with the lasting waste of Nineveh, the low state of Egypt, Tyre as a place for spreading nets, the scattering of Israel, the Gentile trampling of Jerusalem, and the predicted course of world empires, the continuing ruined state of Babylon stands as proof of divine foreknowledge.
Warning to Modern Cities
Babylon's desolation stands as a warning that a city that forgets and defies God faces ruin, and the lesson holds for modern cities as well as for ancient Babylon. Its coming ruin and abandonment, reduced to heaps and left as a desolate haunt associated with dragons without inhabitant, is the fate invited by open, defiant wickedness and warns cities that forget and defy God, including New York and Chicago. The prophecies describing Babylon's doom warn that a city defying God faces destruction if it ignores repeated warnings.