John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 51:13

"O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, the measure of thy covetousness." — Jeremiah 51:13 (ASV)

The word שכנתי, shekenti, is to be understood here as שכנת, shekenet, meaning a dweller; and the passage becomes clearer when we understand it as a title for Babylon. And he says that she was a dweller among waters, because the Euphrates not only flowed by the city (and we know that it was a very large river) but also surrounded it. Indeed, it was divided above Babylon into many streams, so that it formed, as it were, many islands, and thus access to the city was more difficult.

This circumstance served not only as a defense for it but also provided other advantages. For these streams or channels were navigable, and the land was also made more fertile by the irrigation they supplied. Thus, these streams contributed to its wealth as well as to its defense in time of war. And though Babylon was considered impregnable on this account, and was also a very fertile land, yet the Prophet says here that its end had come.

Now, unless he had made this preface—that Babylon was situated among the rivers or many waters, and that it was also a city full of wealth—all this might have seemed a hindrance preventing God from executing His vengeance on it. For this objection was close at hand: “How can Babylon be taken, which is seated between many waters? For without great force and a large number of soldiers, it cannot help but remain safe, since it is protected by so many rivers.”

Then another objection might have been brought forward: that Babylon was an opulent city, so that it could hire auxiliaries from every side, and that, having such an abundance of money, it would never be unprotected. Therefore, the Prophet here mentions these two things; but what he says ought to be understood adversatively, as if he said, “Though you dwell among many waters, and are great in treasures (that is, have large treasures), yet your end has come.”

He adds, the measure of your cupidity. Some render אמת, amet, as “end,” but improperly; and the Prophet did not without reason introduce the word אמת, amet, which properly means a cubit, but is to be understood here as measure. Jerome renders it “a foot,” a word in use in his age.

But the meaning is sufficiently clear: though Babylon had exhausted all the wealth of the world like an insatiable gulf, yet the measure of her cupidity would come. For the cupidity of that nation was unlimited, but God at length brought it to an end—not that they were reformed, but that God checked their coveting.

And according to this sense, the Prophet says that though they had until now been devouring the wealth of many countries, yet the measure of her cupidity had come, precisely because the Lord would take away, along with the monarchy, the power and opportunity of doing wrong. For the Chaldeans were able to act licentiously when they had so many nations subject to them.

But the measure of their cupidity had come when God, in a manner, cut off their strength—not that they then desisted, or that their rapacious disposition was reformed, for they did not change their nature. Instead, cupidity is to be referred here to its exercise, specifically because their power was then taken from them, so that they could not carry on their plunders as they had been accustomed to do. He afterwards adds—