Jeremiah 51:38-51
English Standard Version

38 “They shall roar together like lions;
    they shall growl like lions' cubs.
39 While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast
    and make them drunk, that they may become merry,
then sleep a perpetual sleep
    and not wake, declares the LORD.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and male goats.

41 “How Babylon is taken,
    the praise of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become
    a horror among the nations!
42 The sea has come up on Babylon;
    she is covered with its tumultuous waves.
43 Her cities have become a horror,
    a land of drought and a desert,
a land in which no one dwells,
    and through which no son of man passes.
44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon,
    and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed.
The nations shall no longer flow to him;
    the wall of Babylon has fallen.

45 “Go out of the midst of her, my people!
    Let every one save his life
    from the fierce anger of the LORD!
46 Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful
    at the report heard in the land,
when a report comes in one year
    and afterward a report in another year,
and violence is in the land,
    and ruler is against ruler.

47 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming
    when I will punish the images of Babylon;
her whole land shall be put to shame,
    and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the heavens and the earth,
    and all that is in them,
shall sing for joy over Babylon,
    for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,
declares the LORD.
49 Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,
    just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.

50 “You who have escaped from the sword,
    go, do not stand still!
Remember the LORD from far away,
    and let Jerusalem come into your mind:
51 ‘We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach;
    dishonor has covered our face,
for foreigners have come
    into the holy places of the LORD's house.’

The LORD tells Jeremiah to prophecy that Babylon will be in the midst of a loud, drunken party when the Medes and Persians attack them.  This is exactly what we see happen in the book of Daniel.  They are right in the middle of an all-night party where they are taking the sacred objects from the Temple and using them to offer worship to their gods of wood, stone, bronze, iron, silver, and gold.  The LORD comes down in the midst of this party to write a message on the plaster that the king and the kingdom of Babylon have been weighed and found wanting and that the kingdom would be taken from him that evening and his life would be required of him.  Within moments of Daniel interpreting the words the LORD had written, the prophecy was fulfilled and the Babylonian Empire was no more.

The LORD specifically calls out the false god Bel here to whom much of the military victories of Babylon were attributed.  The LORD said that He would take out Bel's mouth the nations that he had swallowed (speaking of the demon that was at work behind this idol worship).  The LORD would reverse the damage the demon had done and release His people from their captivity and return them to their Land and the Land would once again become fruitful, though the Babylonians tried hard to destroy it.  It will be Babylon that will become a desert wasteland though the mighty Euphrates River and the Tigris River flow through its midst.

The days is coming when these idols that the Babylonians worshiped would be destroyed by the invaders from the North (the Medes and the Greeks and eventually the Romans).  None of them will tolerate the worship of other gods besides the ones they worship.  Just look at Islam which comes from the worship of the moon god Allah and how they destroy all other images and temples wherever they go.  So it was with these other kingdoms as they swept through the area.

The LORD tells all of the Babylonians that hear Him now to run for their lives and all of the Jewish people should get out from among her borders before this time comes (though the LORD is going to use the Medes and the Persians to set His people free, He doesn't want them to get caught up in the battle and killed).  None of the Jews should fight for the Babylonians against the Medes and Persians.  When this day comes, the LORD says that all of creation (including the creatures in heaven) will rejoice at the victory of the LORD over this wicked empire and the kingdom of the devil that was at work through them.  Is it any wonder that the Antichrist will associate His kingdom with the kingdom of Babylon? Once again, when Antichrist, the False Prophet, and the Devil are defeated, and the "New Babylon" falls, all creation will again rejoice at the victory of the one who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  His Kingdom is forever!

The kingdom of Babylon now and in the future will be punished for the blood of God's people that they have spilled and the persecution they have committed against them.  The LORD will avenge His people as they are told to not take vengeance themselves, but to leave room for the wrath of God.  That is what we see happening here.  The wrath of God is avenging His people in His way and in His time.  He will not let the wicked go unpunished, yet, He saves a remnant from every tribe tongue and nation and there will be people from the Kingdom of Babylon that will one day gather with us to worship the Father and the Son in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Those who escape the sword are to run and not stop running.  They may be dispersed throughout the entire world, but they are to keep Jerusalem in their hearts and always remember how the LORD loves His people and His City.  The Temple has been desecrated and that is shameful to the LORD's people right now, but the day is coming when Jerusalem and the Temple will be rebuilt (and the Medo-Persian Empire will pay for it and will return everything that the Babylonians stole from the Temple).

Jeremiah 51:24-37
English Standard Version

24 “I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in Zion, declares the LORD.

25 “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
declares the LORD,
    which destroys the whole earth;
I will stretch out my hand against you,
    and roll you down from the crags,
    and make you a burnt mountain.
26 No stone shall be taken from you for a corner
    and no stone for a foundation,
but you shall be a perpetual waste,
    declares the LORD.

27 “Set up a standard on the earth;
    blow the trumpet among the nations;
prepare the nations for war against her;
    summon against her the kingdoms,
    Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;
appoint a marshal against her;
    bring up horses like bristling locusts.
28 Prepare the nations for war against her,
    the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies,
    and every land under their dominion.
29 The land trembles and writhes in pain,
    for the LORD's purposes against Babylon stand,
to make the land of Babylon a desolation,
    without inhabitant.
30 The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting;
    they remain in their strongholds;
their strength has failed;
    they have become women;
her dwellings are on fire;
    her bars are broken.
31 One runner runs to meet another,
    and one messenger to meet another,
to tell the king of Babylon
    that his city is taken on every side;
32 the fords have been seized,
    the marshes are burned with fire,
    and the soldiers are in panic.
33 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
    at the time when it is trodden;
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 like a monster;
he has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
    he has rinsed me out.
35 The violence done to me and to my kinsmen be upon Babylon,”
    let the inhabitant of Zion say.
“My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
    let Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus says the LORD:
“Behold, I will plead your cause
    and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea
    and make her fountain dry,
37 and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,
    the haunt of jackals,
a horror and a hissing,
    without inhabitant.

The LORD is giving this prophecy to His people--the people of Israel and Judah.  Though it is a prophecy against the people of Chaldea and Babylon, it is not obvious that the LORD ever instructed anyone to make this prophecy publicly known in Chaldea and Babylon (though the LORD will work in other ways to call the people of Babylon to repent before their time of judgement).  The people of the LORD would see the LORD do all this to avenge hat the Chaldeans and Babylonians had done to Jerusalem and the Temple and to Him (and to His people).  His people (Israel and Judah) will see this and understand that the LORD is defending Himself, His City, His Temple and His People.

The Chaldeans saw themselves as a strong mountain that would conquer the whole earth.  That's interesting, because that is the very imagery that the LORD gave to Daniel in his dream about the rock that smashed the statue of the kingdoms of this world and the Rock turned into a mountain the filled the whole world.  It is the LORD's kingdom, not the kingdom of Babylon that would be eternal and without boundaries or measure.  The LORD is going to light the "mountain" of the Chaldeans on fire and burn it so that it is utterly destroyed.

The LORD does declare that the other surrounding nations should see what is going to happen to her and side with the LORD.  They should be ready to battle against Babylon--all the lands of the Medes and the Persians.  The LORD's purpose is to destroy Babylon and turn it into a wasteland and ruin it forever.  It will remain a sign to all those who would rebel against the LORD as Babel and its people did immediately after the Flood (that is where the kingdom of Babylon started, and it will stay a kingdom of spiritual rebellion until the kingdom of Antichrist is destroyed).  City after city of Babylon is going to send messengers to the king that they are being attacked and that their city has fallen.  So many messengers will be running to and fro that they will run into each other as they are trying to enter and leave the king's presence.  The soldiers will stop fighting, the River and its fords will be seized and the marshes will be burned with fire.  This will be a time of "harvest" for the kingdom of Babylon (the righteous good grain will be separated from the evil bad tares.  The good grain is brought into the barn but the tares and the chaff are burned up with fire.)

The LORD speaks of the violence done to the people of Israel and Judah as being done directly towards Him.  Nebuchadnezzar has dried to destroy the people of Israel and Judah.  Not only did he try to destroy the Land and destroy many of the people, but he took the young people back to Babylon to try to brainwash them to turn them into Babylonians and worshipers of his gods so that there would be no more Jewish people.  He ordered them to worship him and most of them complied.  The LORD knows this was a pattern of trying to destroy His people and to keep His covenant with them from coming to pass (this is the spirit of antichrist that is at work in the world throughout all generations that is against the people of the LORD and His covenant people).

The LORD has heard the cries of His people for the LORD to avenge them, and, once again, He will go to war against their enemy (and His enemy) for them.  The LORD will make the land of Chaldea and Babylon a wasteland as they desired to do to Zion and the Holy Land.  It will become a desert without a source of fresh water.  Nothing will be left but the scavengers and unclean animals that inhabit such desert wastelands.  All of its inhabitants will be destroyed either through the battle or by assimilating into other nations (just as the Babylonians had desired to do to Israel and Judah, it will be done to them).

Jeremiah 51:11-23
English Standard Version

11 “Sharpen the arrows!
    Take up the shields!

The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple.

12 “Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon;
    make the watch strong;
set up watchmen;
    prepare the ambushes;
for the LORD has both planned and done
    what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O you who dwell by many waters,
    rich in treasures,
your end has come;
    the thread of your life is cut.
14 The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself:
Surely I will fill you with men, as many as locusts,
    and they shall raise the shout of victory over you.

15 “It is he who made the earth by his power,
    who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
16 When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
    and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain,
    and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
17 Every man is stupid and without knowledge;
    every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
for his images are false,
    and there is no breath in them.
18 They are worthless, a work of delusion;
    at the time of their punishment they shall perish.
19 Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob,
    for he is the one who formed all things,
and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;
    the LORD of hosts is his name.

20 “You are my hammer and weapon of war:
with you I break nations in pieces;
    with you I destroy kingdoms;
21 with you I break in pieces the horse and his rider;
    with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer;
22 with you I break in pieces man and woman;
    with you I break in pieces the old man and the youth;
with you I break in pieces the young man and the young woman;
23     with you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
with you I break in pieces the farmer and his team;
    with you I break in pieces governors and commanders.

We now finally learn who the LORD is going to use to conquer the Babylonians.  This enemy from the north will be the Medes.  The LORD will stir their hearts (along with the Persians) to destroy Babylon.  The LORD will have His vengeance for what the Babylonians did to His Temple in Jerusalem.

The LORD has planned and declared that this will be the end of Babylon.  Though they believed their fortifications were impenetrable, they will be broken.  Though they had the natural barrier of the Euphrates River, it will fail them.  The swarm of men that will descend on Babylon to defeat it will be like a hungry swarm of locusts ready to devour and destroy everything in their path.

This would sound unbelievable to most who would hear it, so the LORD reminds them that He is the one that spoke everything into existence out of nothing.  Nothing is too hard for Him.  As the Creator of all things, He is the rightful owner and the one with the right to build up and tear down kings and kingdoms.  If the heavens obey His voice, should not also the people of earth obey Him?  Yet the people of Babylon have chosen the way of rebellion and wickedness.  They must be judged for the good of all other men who may be led astray by their great evil.  The Babylonians worship many false gods, but the people of Israel and Judah who are descended from their father Jacob, they know the True and Living God and proclaim Him and His great Name to all the earth.  This is why their punishment was different.  God has a different plan for them.  They are to be His ambassadors to the whole world--to bring light to the darkness and to make known the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

The LORD will use the Medes and the Persian to break the proud and mighty people (like the Babylonians) just as He used the Babylonians to do so with many other wicked nations that Israel had failed to completely destroy.  What Babylon didn't finish, the Medo-Persian Empire will mostly take care of, and what they leave behind, the Greeks will take care of and what the Greeks leave behind, the Romans will take care of.  After that, the perfect time will come for the Messiah and His gospel to come and be proclaimed to the whole world.

Jeremiah 51:1-10
English Standard Version

The Utter Destruction of Babylon
51 Thus says the LORD:
“Behold, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer
    against Babylon,
    against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai,
2 and I will send to Babylon winnowers,
    and they shall winnow her,
and they shall empty her land,
    when they come against her from every side
    on the day of trouble.
3 Let not the archer bend his bow,
    and let him not stand up in his armor.
Spare not her young men;
    devote to destruction all her army.
4 They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
    and wounded in her streets.
5 For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken
    by their God, the LORD of hosts,
but the land of the Chaldeans is full of guilt
    against the Holy One of Israel.

6 “Flee from the midst of Babylon;
    let every one save his life!
Be not cut off in her punishment,
    for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance,
    the repayment he is rendering her.
7 Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD's hand,
    making all the earth drunken;
the nations drank of her wine;
    therefore the nations went mad.
8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken;
    wail for her!
Take balm for her pain;
    perhaps she may be healed.
9 We would have healed Babylon,
    but she was not healed.
Forsake her, and let us go
    each to his own country,
for her judgment has reached up to heaven
    and has been lifted up even to the skies.
10 The LORD has brought about our vindication;
    come, let us declare in Zion
    the work of the LORD our God.

The prophecy against the place and people of Babylon continues.  Yes, this is about the return of the people from Exile, but it's more than that.  This is about the destruction of the kingdom of the Antichrist and the devil in the last days and how all evil and abominations will be destroyed and the LORD and His Christ will reign forever and ever.

The LORD will cause Babylon to be destroyed--first physical Babylon by the hands of a physical destroyer, but later He will speak and the sword of His mouth will destroy His rebellious enemies and spiritual Babylon will be destroyed.  The LORD will be careful in both cases not to destroy the righteous along with the wicked.  It would be best for the Chaldean army and the soldiers, archers, spearmen and other men of war if they would refuse to fight against the LORD and the destroyer that He has anointed for this task.  These words sound similar to the instructions He gave to Jerusalem about not fighting against Babylon.  Now the shoe is on the other foot and it is Babylon who is proud and being called to surrender, but they will not surrender--they will be destroyed.

Why will the LORD do this?  To show the world that He has not forgotten about Israel and Judah.  He has forgiven them and He has restored His covenant with them.  They were not abandoned by Him and He does not hate them.  The Chaldeans (the Babylonians) are full of guilt for how they have treated the LORD and His people.  The LORD has charged all the wrong they have done against His people as if it was done against Him personally.

The LORD warns everyone who will hear and heed His message that they should flee, for the day of the LORD's vengeance is upon them.  In the last days, there will be nowhere to flee though.  The whole world will be in rebellion to the LORD with the exception of His people Israel.  The wicked will perish in the judgment, but the righteous will be saved--though it may be as if they are like Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah who passed through the fire and came through it unharmed because the LORD was with them.

The people of Israel and Judah should not bond with and side with their captors, lest they also are swept up in the LORD's vengeance and wrath and His coming judgment.  For a time, the LORD used Babylon to execute His judgment against nations--many of whom the people of Israel were supposed to execute His judgment and they did not.  Now it is Babylon's turn to be judged by the LORD and by other nations.  The time of that kingdom had come to an end because the LORD said so.  He establishes boundaries and the timeline of history.  He makes kingdoms rise up and fall down.  He establishes and overthrows kings, emperors and other sovereigns.  The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it.  Let everything that hath breath praise the LORD!

It is not for us to rush to the aid of every nation that we see afflicted by the judgment of the LORD.  If it is the LORD's will to destroy a people, then why should we stand in opposition to the LORD to try to save them?  However, there is always a call to share the gospel with all of these evil empires that they might repent and be saved spiritually.  This "healing balm" would have ultimately saved even the wicked people of Babylon if they had accepted it, but they rejected it.  If you wonder exactly how it is that the gospel was presented to the people of Babylon and how they rejected it, see the book of Daniel.

The LORD has vindicated Himself, His Name, and His people.  No longer do the nations imagine that He goes to war against His people, but He goes to war for them and against anyone who attacks them.  He will be the one to take vengeance on those who attacked His Name and His Temple.  They put Him to the test to taunt Him that He was unable to defend Himself or His people and He responded in a way that left no question that He is God alone and He is Mighty to Save!

Jeremiah 50:39-46
English Standard Version
​
39 “Therefore wild beasts shall dwell with hyenas in Babylon, and ostriches shall dwell in her. She shall never again have people, nor be inhabited for all generations. 40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, declares the LORD, so no man shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn in her.

41 “Behold, a people comes from the north;
    a mighty nation and many kings
    are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
42 They lay hold of bow and spear;
    they are cruel and have no mercy.
The sound of them is like the roaring of the sea;
    they ride on horses,
arrayed as a man for battle
    against you, O daughter of Babylon!

43 “The king of Babylon heard the report of them,
    and his hands fell helpless;
anguish seized him,
    pain as of a woman in labor.

44 “Behold, like a lion coming up from the thicket of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly make them run away from her, and I will appoint over her whomever I choose. For who is like me? Who will summon me? What shepherd can stand before me? 45 Therefore hear the plan that the LORD has made against Babylon, and the purposes that he has formed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of their flock shall be dragged away; surely their fold shall be appalled at their fate. 46 At the sound of the capture of Babylon the earth shall tremble, and her cry shall be heard among the nations.”

Hyenas and ostriches were animals that lived in accursed places.  They were both unclean animals and their presence is used symbolically to represent places that were unclean and judged by God for their sin.  The city of Babylon would be destroyed and never again rebuilt or inhabited in any future generations (this is true to this day).  Babylon would be like Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities which the LORD destroyed and were never rebuilt.  No one lives there and no one takes a trip there to visit or vacation.  It is a place to be avoided.

The Medes, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans will all replace the Babylonian Empire.  These invaders that the LORD will send from the North from the uttermost parts of the earth will utterly destroy the city of Babylon and her people.  The king of Babylon will hear of their approach and he will fear them.  The LORD will join the battle like a lion that comes out from the thicket making the strong scatter and leaving the weak to be picked off.

The LORD wants His people--His sheep--to understand that He is their Shepherd and no one will guide and protect them like He will.  Though He has allowed Babylon to have victory over Judah for a short time, He has plans to punish them.  They will not escape the arm or hand of the LORD.  The LORD will once again gather His flock back in the Land and they will once again be the sheep of His pasture.  Then the earth will tremble and fear the LORD because He has destroyed Babylon and saved His people from them.  

Jeremiah 50:33-38
English Standard Version
​
33 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah with them. All who took them captive have held them fast; they refuse to let them go. 34 Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.

35 “A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the LORD,
    and against the inhabitants of Babylon,
    and against her officials and her wise men!
36 A sword against the diviners,
    that they may become fools!
A sword against her warriors,
    that they may be destroyed!
37 A sword against her horses and against her chariots,
    and against all the foreign troops in her midst,
    that they may become women!
A sword against all her treasures,
    that they may be plundered!
38 A drought against her waters,
    that they may be dried up!
For it is a land of images,
    and they are mad over idols.

The LORD's attention now turns towards the flock of Israel and Judah.  The Good Shepherd sees how His sheep are afflicted and He has compassion on them.  They have been oppressed and mistreated by those who took them captive.  Now the LORD will return this treatment to those who mistreated His people (and He will also give the captors a portion of what Israel and Judah deserved).

The LORD will specifically target the Chaldeans, officials, and wise men (the Magi) of the Babylonian Empire.  They are the ones who led the Babylonians to follow the words of demons by all kinds of divination.  Though Babylon had one of the mightiest of armies, their strong men would not be strong enough to save them.  Their wise men would not be wise enough to figure out an escape plan.  No one is stronger or wiser than the LORD.

All the great cities and buildings and monuments and temples of the Babylonians would be destroyed.  All their wealth would be pillaged and plundered.  Everything they valued would be decimated, decorated, or taken as spoils of war by those who would conquer them.  Though they had the mighty Euphrates River called The Great River running through their midst, the LORD would send a drought to dry it up.  Why?  Because the Babylonians worshiped false gods--they had many idols.  He says they are mad over idols.  A few of the Babylonians will turn to the LORD and worship Him.  There will be a remnant even from among the people of Babylon.

Jeremiah 50:21-32
English Standard Version

21 “Go up against the land of Merathaim,
    and against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Kill, and devote them to destruction,
declares the LORD,
    and do all that I have commanded you.
22 The noise of battle is in the land,
    and great destruction!
23 How the hammer of the whole earth
    is cut down and broken!
How Babylon has become
    a horror among the nations!
24 I set a snare for you and you were taken, O Babylon,
    and you did not know it;
you were found and caught,
    because you opposed the LORD.
25 The LORD has opened his armory
    and brought out the weapons of his wrath,
for the Lord GOD of hosts has a work to do
    in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from every quarter;
    open her granaries;
pile her up like heaps of grain, and devote her to destruction;
    let nothing be left of her.
27 Kill all her bulls;
    let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, for their day has come,
    the time of their punishment.

28 “A voice! They flee and escape from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, vengeance for his temple.

29 “Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her according to all that she has done. For she has proudly defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. 30 Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day, declares the LORD.

31 “Behold, I am against you, O proud one,
    declares the Lord GOD of hosts,
for your day has come,
    the time when I will punish you.
32 The proud one shall stumble and fall,
    with none to raise him up,
and I will kindle a fire in his cities,
    and it will devour all that is around him.

The LORD commands that ones He has chosen who will go up to punish and judge Babylon to go against all of its cities and make war.  They are to kill and devote to destruction that inhabitants and towns and possessions of the Babylonians (this sounds much like the LORD's command to the Israelites concerning the Canaanites, but no one bats an eye that the LORD commanded the Greeks and the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans to to this to Babylon).

The world thought of the kingdom of Babylon as a hammer that smashed and destroyed everything, but not the LORD said "the hammer" would be destroyed.  The LORD is going to open His armory of heavenly weapons and He will wage war and lead His heavenly host into battle against Babylon as well.  With the destroyer of Babylon on the same side as the LORD, victory is certain.  The kingdom that once horrified all other nations because they feared its brutality will now be a horror show because people will fear the LORD and what happens to nations that engage in such wickedness and trust in false gods for their salvation and mistreat His people Israel and Judah.

The LORD commands the invaders to take all of Babylon's stockpiles of grain and to kill all of its cattle (wealth was still largely measured in agricultural teams in the Near East/Middle East).  The LORD will allow a messenger to escape and run to Jerusalem to declare His victory over the Chaldeans and Babylonians.  The LORD will be recognized and worshiped for His orchestration of the battle and He will win the victory and receive the glory.

The LORD calls on the nations that have been abused by Babylon to take up arms against her and surround her with archers so they can pick off anyone who flees.  He calls on the others to be as brutal and merciless to Babylon as Babylon was to them.  Yet, the greatest crime the LORD sites is that Babylon has defiled the LORD (probably referring to desecrating the holy objects of the Temple and using them to have drunken orgies to celebrate their false gods).  We read in the book of Daniel that it is on the very night that Belteshazzar holds this party that the kingdom is taken away from him and the Medo-Persian armies invade.  The Babylonians were so proud they did not imagine they needed defenses where the River came into their gates and city because they thought it provided a natural defense.  The Medo-Persians were able to divert the river and then march right into the capital city.

The message given to the Babylonians here is very similar to what the LORD told Daniel to tell the king on that day "Your days are numbered" and "your time is up."  There will be no one that can save these proud Babylonians from the hand of the LORD, especially not their false gods.  The LORD would put all of them to shame, destroy them all and burn everything down that they were so proud of (like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon that were one of the Ancient Wonders of the World).  The spirit of Babylon remains as the spirit of antichrist and as a spiritual kingdom of those who follow the devil and his false messiahs.  It is a kingdom of spiritual darkness that is proud and opposed to the LORD and His people, but it will fall in the end and be utterly destroyed by the LORD.  Those who believe there is salvation in the spiritual kingdom of Babylon are sadly mistaken and should take a lesson from what the LORD did to physical Babylon--a kingdom that no longer exists.