Having just spoken of how the Lord’s judgment of Babylon is a sign that he has not forsaken his people (Jeremiah 51:5), he now commands the exiles in Babylon to flee from the midst of Babylon; let everyone 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.
There is a need for the Lord’s people who have been exiled in Babylon to recognize that it is the Lord who is acting against their captors, vindicating them as his covenant people. The Lord is saving them, but the response of faith is to flee Babylon, not to linger passively waiting to see what might happen.
Babylon had been a golden cup in the Lord’s hands. This refers back to Jeremiah’s symbolic act in Jeremiah 25:15–29 where he was told to make all the nations drink from the cup of the Lord’s wrath. Babylon was initially the cup that the Lord sent to the nations, including Judah. Indeed, Babylon was the golden cup in the Lord’s hands because of her great wealth and strength. But now the golden cup has suddenly fallen and been broken.
The tables have turned and Babylon faces the Lord’s judgment (Jeremiah 25:26).
The Lord places words of lament for Babylon on the lips of his people as they flee. Wail for her! Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed.
These are no doubt genuine words of lament for what is happening to Babylon.1 Again, we see that the Lord does not delight in the destruction that his judgment brings, and neither should his people. We must also remember that the Lord had told the exiles to settle down in Babylon, to make a life for themselves and to contribute to the welfare of the city, even pray for it (Jeremiah 29:4–9). However, in the end the Lord’s judgment of Babylon is inevitable and irresistible. There is no balm for her, no one can heal her and protect her from the Lord for her judgment has reached up to heaven and has been lifted up even to the skies.
The judgment of Babylon matches the scale of her arrogance and idolatry. The language used here probably reflects Genesis 11:4 where people attempt to build the Tower of Babel that reached to the heavens. Babel
is the Hebrew name for the city and there is a wordplay on the Hebrew verb balal
which means to confuse.” Babylon is the Greek spelling for the word Babal. Babylon
s judgment is on the same scale as her rebellion against the Lord and that rebellion is typical of humankind’s attempts to make a name for themselves independent of the Lord.2
The returning exiles announce in Zion that through the judgment of Babylon the Lord has brought about our vindication.
The Lord’s work of judgment has restored them as his covenant people.
6 Fuyez de Babylone, et que chacun sauve sa vie, De peur que vous ne périssiez dans sa ruine! Car c'est un temps de vengeance pour l'Eternel; Il va lui rendre selon ses œuvres.