John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 50:2

"Declare ye among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed." — Jeremiah 50:2 (ASV)

He predicts the ruin of Babylon, not in simple words, because nothing seemed then more unreasonable than to announce the things which God eventually proved by the outcome. As Babylon was then the metropolis of the East, no one could have thought that it would ever be possessed by a foreign power.

No one could have thought of the Persians, for they were distant. As for the Medes, who were nearer, they were, as we know, sunk in their own luxuries and were considered but half men. Since there was so much softness in the Medes, and as the Persians were so distant and enclosed in their own mountains, Babylon peacefully enjoyed the empire of the whole eastern world. This, then, is the reason why the Prophet expresses at length what he could have stated in very few words.

Tell, he says, among the nations, publish, raise up a sign, and again, publish. For what purpose is such an abundance of words? It was so that the faithful might learn to lift their thoughts above the world and to expect that which was then, according to the judgment of all, incredible.

This confidence shows that Jeremiah did not, in vain, foretell what he states; but he thundered, as it were, from heaven, knowing from where he derived this prophecy. And his proclamation was this: Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, and Merodach is broken. I do not know why some think that Merodach was an idol; for as for Bel, we know that the Babylonians trusted in that god, or rather, in that figment.

But the Prophet here clearly mentions the name of a king well known to the Jews, in order to show that Babylon, with all its defences and its wealth, was already devoted to destruction. For we know that men look partly to some god and partly to human or temporal means. So the Babylonians boasted that they were under the protection of Bel and dared proudly to set up this idol in opposition to the only true God, as the unbelieving do. Then, in the second place, they were intoxicated with confidence in their own power.

And hypocrisy always rules in the unbelieving, so that they arrogate to themselves much more than what they ascribe to their idols. It is then the same thing as if he had said that Babylon was taken, that Bel was confounded, and that the kingdom was broken, or broken in pieces.

The name Merodach, as I have said, was well known among the Jews, and mention is made of a father and of a son of this name by Isaiah and in sacred history (Isaiah 39:1; 2 Kings 20:12). It is no wonder, then, that the Prophet should name this king, though dead, on account of the esteem in which he was held. As we have seen in the case of the kingdom of Syria, he mentioned Ben-hadad, though no one supposes that he was alive then; but as Ben-hadad distinguished himself above other kings of Syria, the Prophet introduced his name. For the same reason, in my opinion, he names Merodach here.

The sum of it all is that though Babylon thought itself safe and secure through the help of its idol, and also through its wealth and warlike power, and through other defences, yet its confidence would become vain and empty, for God would bring its idol to shame and destroy its king.

He returned to the idols again, and not without reason, for in this way he called the attention of his own nation to the only true God and also reminded them how detestable the idolatry was that then prevailed among the Chaldeans. And it was necessary to present this doctrine to the Jews and to impress it on them, so that they might not abandon themselves to the superstitions of heathens, as indeed happened.

But the Prophet deliberately spoke of images and idols so that the Jews might know that it was the only true God who had adopted them. In this way, they might rest confidently in His power and know that those things highly regarded throughout the whole world by the heathens and the unbelieving were only vain fictions.