The poem in Jeremiah 51:20–26 is interrupted by a sentence of prose in Jeremiah 51:24 which looks back at Babylon’s evil behaviour towards Judah and Jerusalem. The Lord will repay Babylon for all the evil they have done in Zion.
This comment marks a dramatic change in the poem as Babylon now becomes the focus of the Lord’s judgment instead of his instrument of judgment.
Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares the Lord, which destroys the whole earth.
The Lord is clearly referring to Babylon, but the city was on a plain and not on a mountain. Mountain
is therefore used here as an analogy of Babylon’s political power. It towered over other nations and used that dominance to bring widespread destruction.1 But the Lord will stretch out his hand against Babylon and roll you down from the crags, and make you a burnt mountain.
Babylon’s power will come crashing down and it will be destroyed by the Lord. Nothing will remain, not even a stone that can be used to start rebuilding. Babylon will be a perpetual waste.
This prophecy was not fulfilled by the Persian invasion under Cyris. Babylon was defeated, but it was left standing. These words look much further forward into Babylon’s future, probably even to the very end when the Lord’s judgment will finally bring to an end all those who oppose him. In this eschatological sense, Babylon represents the pinnacle of human rebellion against the Lord and his people and in the end Babylon will fall.
24 Je rendrai à Babylone et à tous les habitants de la Chaldée Tout le mal qu'ils ont fait à Sion sous vos yeux, Dit l'Eternel.