12. Hindermost. Babylon took pride in her world leadership. At a time when the nation was ascending to the pinnacle of her power (see on 1) Jeremiah in biting irony prophetically calls her “the hindermost of the nations.” Compare Balaam’s prophecy of Amalek (Num. 24:20).
A desert. By prophetic foresight Jeremiah looks down through the centuries and beholds the result of a succession of catastrophes that would cause Babylon to become “a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.” The soil of Babylonia was highly fertile. When irrigated, the land yielded abundant crops, but when left without water, it quickly became a vast desert. From early times the prosperity of central and southern Mesopotamia depended upon the existence of a strong government that could maintain the network of irrigation canals. Periods of anarchy were periods of desolation. As the prophet predicts political disaster, he also sees the country becoming a desert.
The predicted desolation came, although not immediately upon Babylon’s fall. Under the Persians the country of Babylonia continued to be highly productive. Herodotus (i. 193), writing during that period, declared, “For the Babylonian territory, like Egypt, is intersected by canals. … It is so fruitful in the produce of corn, that it yields continually two hundred-fold, and when it produces its best, it yields even three hundred-fold. The blades of wheat and barley grow there to full four fingers in breadth, and though I well know to what a height millet and sesame grow, I shall not mention it; for I am well assured that, to those who have never been in the Babylonian country, what has been said concerning its productions will appear to many incredible. … They have palm-trees growing all over the plain” (Henry Cary, trans.).
A similar situation prevailed in Roman times; Pliny (Natural History xviii. 17), in the 1st century , states that there were two harvests a year in Babylonia. Mesopotamia continued to flourish under Moslem rule until 1258, when the Mongols, under the grandson of Genghis Khan, swept over Western Asia. As part of their depredations they demolished the irrigation system. Since that time, the central and southern plains of Mesopotamia have been largely desert.