The Lord once again commands the invading forces and tells them to open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain, and devote her to destruction, let nothing be left behind.
No doubt the invading forces may have destroyed Babylon’s large stores of grain leaving the nation devastated by famine. But the vivid imagery seems to be of the dead being piled up like heaps of grain. Babylon’s population will be decimated by the invaders. They are to devote her to destruction.
This is the same language used in Jeremiah 50:21,Jeremiah 51:3, and Jeremiah 51:55 and refers to the spoils of war that are devoted to the Lord (see Joshua 6:15–21; Joshua 7:10–26).
The invaders are also instructed to Kill all her bulls; let them go down to their slaughter.
This is once again an agricultural image, but bulls
probably refers to those who controlled the military and economic power in Babylon.1 The most powerful and influential in Babylon would be slaughtered in the invasion as they face their day of judgment.
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.