John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 50:1

"The word that Jehovah spake concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet." — Jeremiah 50:1 (ASV)

Our Prophet has been until now speaking of neighboring nations who had cruelly harassed the chosen people. It was some consolation when the children of Abraham understood that God undertook their cause and would be the avenger of those wrongs which they had suffered. But this of itself would have been no great consolation; indeed, it might have been viewed as nothing by many while there was no hope of restoration, for it would have been but a small consolation to have others as associates in misery.

If, indeed, Jeremiah had only taught that none of the nations who had troubled God’s Church would escape unpunished, the Jews might have raised an objection, saying that they were not freed from their own calamities because the monarchy of Babylon still flourished, and that they were buried, as it were, in a perpetual grave. It was therefore necessary that what we read here should be predicted. And though this prophecy is given last, we ought to notice that the Prophet had from the beginning expressly spoken, as we have seen, of the calamity and destruction of Babylon. But this prophecy is given as the conclusion of the book to mitigate the sorrow of the miserable exiles; for it was no small relief to them to hear that the tyranny by which they were oppressed, and under which they lived, as it were, a lifeless life, would not be perpetual. We now understand, then, why the Prophet spoke of the Babylonians and of their destruction.

But a longer preface would be superfluous, because those acquainted with Scripture well know that the Jews were eventually so reduced by the Babylonians that their very name seemed to have been obliterated. Since they were then reduced to such extremities, it is no wonder that the Prophet here affirms that the Babylonians would eventually be punished, not only so that God might show Himself to be the avenger of wickedness, but also so that the miserable exiles might know that they were not wholly repudiated, but on the contrary, that God cared for their salvation. We now perceive the design of this prophecy.

The word of Jehovah, he says, which he spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the Prophet. He testifies in his usual manner that he did not bring forward what he himself had invented, but that God was the author of this prophecy. He at the same time declares that he was God’s minister; for God did not descend from heaven whenever it pleased him to reveal his favor to the Jews, but, as it is said in Deuteronomy, he customarily spoke by his servants (Deuteronomy 18:18). In short, Jeremiah thus recommends what he was about to say, so that the Jews might reverently receive them, not as the fictions of men, but as oracles from heaven.