John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 34:20

"I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be for food unto the birds of the heavens, and to the beasts of the earth." — Jeremiah 34:20 (ASV)

He confirms and explains what he had previously said, and expresses how the punishment would be executed: that he would deliver them into the hand of their enemies. He adds, who seek their life, to show that their enemies would not be content with the spoils, or with a moderate punishment, but would be their inveterate enemies, who would not be satisfied until they destroyed them.

This passage also teaches us that the ungodly are God’s scourges, for the punishment He resolved to inflict on the transgressors of His law, He executed through them. Though the Chaldeans had another object than to be God’s ministers in punishing the Jews, yet they performed God’s work as though they were His hired servants, subject to His own will and pleasure. Nor is there a doubt that their minds had been greatly exasperated against the Jews, so that they shed blood indiscriminately without mercy, for as God often says,

“I will give you favor in the sight of your enemies” (Exodus 3:21; Exodus 11:3).

So also on the other hand, He declares that when enemies raged cruelly against them, it was through His secret influence, as He had resolved to punish them severely. This is the reason why he now says that he would deliver the Jews into the hand of those who sought their life, that is, those who were not intent on prey or spoils, and would not be satisfied with moderate punishment, but would be implacable enemies, until they destroyed the people.

Another kind of punishment follows: Their carcases shall be for food to the birds of heaven, and to the beasts of the earth, as if he had said that God’s vengeance on the Jews would be made evident even after death. We said last week that it would be no loss to us were we to be unburied, for burial brings no advantage to us; but yet it is a sign of God’s vengeance.

As famine, nakedness, cold, diseases, and other evils are evidences of God’s wrath against men, so it is also when the body of a dead man is cast out and is either torn by wild beasts or eaten by birds.

If anyone objects that this has sometimes happened to the best and holiest of God’s servants, we answer that temporal punishment happens in common to the good and the bad. But when God, by famine and want, by diseases, by exile, by prison, or by any other evils, tries and chastises His servants, all this serves them as a help to their salvation.

Yet this special mercy of God toward the faithful—a peculiar privilege—provides no grounds for denying that all miseries are in themselves evidences of God’s wrath, for they are everywhere called curses. We also know that from the same fountain flow all the evils which men suffer in this life, namely, from God’s judgment, who in this manner executes punishment.

It is not, then, without reason that the Prophet here declares that God’s judgment toward the Jews would be so severe and dreadful that it would extend beyond death itself, for they would become meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.