"And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations."
The king of Babylon has made God pretty angry by destroying Solomon's Temple. Jeremiah reports that the punishment God has relayed is that (in 70 more years) he will punish the king and the entire nation by leaving the state in abandoned, uninhabitable ruins forever.
So what does the area of "Babylon" look like today?
Oops!Actually, I think it's only fair that we read a little further to make sure we're not misunderstanding things here. Is Jeremiah really saying that god will keep Babylon in ruins forever? As it turns out, reading more of the book shows us that that's precisely what Jeremiah's trying to say.
51:26
And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD.
51:29
And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
51:43
Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.
Well that's pretty clear. So why exactly will no city ever be there again?
Easy! Because of all the dragons!51:37 -58
And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps.
In any case, Iraq exists, there are no dragons in Baghdad, and the bible's pretty clear on what happens to false prophets like Jeremiah.
Revelations 20:10
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
If there's a hell, it looks like Jeremiah's in it.
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