The Burden This prophecy indicates the judgment of God upon the foreign nations that oppressed His people. the word “burden” is associated with the heavy burden which the Assyrian and Babylonian oppressors would have the bear.

Babylon, for example, possessed a sinful and idolatrous culture, besides being extremely presumptuous (v. 19).

Besides leading the Jews into captivity, they invaded and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple (2 Kings 24). Today, Babylon represents the religious and political sphere of the world that controls everything that oppose God. Their teachings, from the ancient past, go against the Eternal, hence the prophecy that it will be destroyed (Rev 18.10).