The Lord responds to the faithless disillusionment of the exiles with amazing, undeserved patience and grace. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will execute judgment upon her images, and through all her land the wounded shall groan. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height, yet destroyers would come from me against her, declares the Lord.
The word therefore
shows that this is the Lord’s response of assurance to those exiles who have doubted his faithfulness to them (Jeremiah 51:52). He assures the exiles that judgment will come to Babylon and her gods. Once again, the language of the narrative of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1–32 comes to mind. Regardless of how determined and arrogant Babylon’s belief is that it can make a name for itself without the Lord, he will send destroyers to bring her down. Despite the apparent victory of Babylon, and seemingly her gods, over Judah and Jerusalem, the exiles must know and trust that the Lord will vindicate his people and his own name as the one and only true God who made heaven and earth.
52 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will execute judgment upon her images, and through all her land the wounded shall groan.