Why Babylon Was Punished

…the Lord's portion is His people Jacob, Israel the measured lot of His inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:9). It is therefore a most terrible thing to rise up against the land of the Lord, that is, the Church, and to carry out murderous outrages against the people allotted to Christ. For whoever is caught in such monstrous crimes will in no way be held guiltless.

But someone, I think, who has considered the calamities that befell Judaea and Jerusalem itself might say: “Did the tyrant of the Babylonians come of his own accord, march against the land of the Jews and take the holy city, without God letting him do it, or rather without God giving it to him? Yet the prophet Isaiah himself tells us: ‘The Lord will whistle for the fly that rules part of the river of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of the Assyrians, and they will all come and rest in the ravines of the land, and in the holes of the rocks, and in the caves, and in every cleft, and on every tree’ (Isaiah 7:18-19). How then can the Babylonian, who served God's command, bear a charge he cannot escape, and be punished so terribly that nothing can be seen beyond the wrath brought upon him?”

Yes, and with very good reason. For the God of all willed to rebuke Israel when he had turned aside to apostasy, and by measured chastisements to persuade him to run back to the worship he was used to, I mean the worship of the Law. But the Babylonian, though brought in for this purpose, was merciless like a wild beast and gave free rein to his fury. So he is accused, as God says plainly: “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy, and with great anger I am angry with the nations that join in the attack; for I was angry only a little, but they joined in the attack for evil” (Zechariah 1:14-15).

God raised up Pharaoh, who was a vessel of anger and wrath (Romans 9:22) and was already liable to punishment for his own offences, so that, as He Himself says, He might show in him His own power and the exactness of His just judgment (Romans 9:17; Exodus 9:16). In the same way you should understand the case of the Babylonians. They were vessels of wrath who justly deserved punishment, and they were brought against Jerusalem so that, after disciplining Israel, they too might afterward be given up to the punishment that most befitted and best suited them.

“Wicked seed, prepare your children to be slaughtered for the sins of your father, so that they may not rise up and fill the earth with wars. And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of Hosts, and I will destroy their name and remnant and seed” (Isaiah 14:20-22).

Nebuchadnezzar did most terrible things against every nation; and those who came after him and were descended from him, down to Belshazzar, followed their father's perversity and outdid his deeds, cruel and harsh and…