John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 51:35-36

"The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry." — Jeremiah 51:35-36 (ASV)

Jeremiah continues with the same subject; for, after showing that the calamities of the people were not unknown to God, he now indirectly exhorts the faithful to deposit their complaints in the bosom of God and to appeal to him as their defender. The Prophet's design, then, is (after explaining how grievously the Jews had been afflicted) to show them that their only remedy was to flee to God and to plead their cause before him.

And this passage deserves particular notice, so that we may also learn, in extreme evils, when all things seem hopeless, to reveal our evils to God, and thus to unburden our anxieties in His bosom. For how is it that sorrow often overwhelms us, except that we do not follow what God’s Spirit prescribes to us? For it is said in the Psalms:

Roll thy cares into God’s bosom, and he will sustain thee, and will not give the righteous to a perpetual change (Psalms 55:23).

We may then, by prayer, unburden ourselves, and this is the best remedy: but we murmur, and sometimes clamor, or at least we bite and champ the bridle, according to a common proverb; and, meanwhile, we neglect the chief thing, and what the Prophet teaches us here.

We ought then carefully to mark the design of what is here taught, when it is said, my violence and my flesh be upon Babylon. When he adds, Say will (or let) the daughter of Sion, he undoubtedly shows that the faithful always have this consolation in their extreme calamities: that they can expostulate with God concerning their enemies and their cruelty.

Then he says, my plunder or violence; some translate it as “the plunder of me,” which is harsh. But the Prophet’s meaning is not ambiguous, for my flesh follows afterwards. Then the violence was that which was done by enemies. But the people are here spoken of under the name of a woman, as is commonly done: Let the inhabitress of Sion say, My plunder and my flesh. By the second word, the Prophet shows sufficiently clearly what he meant by plunder.

My flesh, he says (even that which the Chaldeans had devoured and consumed), be on Babylon. This is of the greatest weight, for by these words he intimates that though the Chaldeans thought they had exercised their cruelty towards the Jews with impunity, yet their innocent blood cried out and stood against them as an enemy.

To the same purpose he afterwards adds, Let Jerusalem say, My blood is upon the Chaldeans.

A clearer explanation then follows, when God promises that He would be the avenger of His chosen people, and that whatever the Jews had suffered would be rendered to Babylon: Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will litigate thy quarrel.

By this passage, we are taught to present our complaints to God if we wish Him to undertake our cause. For when we are silent, He will in His turn rest, as He considers us unworthy of being helped. But if we cry to Him, He will doubtless hear us.

Thus, we must remember the order of things, for the Prophet says on the one hand, Let Jerusalem cry, let the daughter of Sion say; and on the other hand, he says, Therefore God will come and hear the cry of His people.

He says, first, Behold, I will plead thy cause, and then, I will vindicate or avenge thy vengeance. These are hard words for Latin ears; yet they contain more force and power than if we were to follow the elegance of the Latin language. It is better then to retain the genuine terms than to strive too much for neatness.

In short, God promises to be the defender of His people, and by using the demonstrative particle, He undoubtedly removes every doubt, as though the thing were now present. We know that more than seventy years had passed since God had spoken thus; for, as has already been stated, Jeremiah did not prophesy against the Chaldeans after the taking of the city. But though God suspended His judgment and vengeance for seventy years after the destruction of the city, yet this was said, Behold, I, as though He brought the faithful to witness the event; and this was done for the sake of certainty.

Now, from this we learn that though God humbles His people, and allows them even to be overwhelmed with extreme miseries, He will at length become the avenger of all the wrongs which they may have endured. For what has been said of the destruction of the people refers to us; indeed, what is said here has been recorded only for our benefit.

Furthermore, let us learn, as I have reminded you before, to prepare our minds for patience whenever God seems to forsake us. Let us, at the same time, constantly exercise ourselves in prayer, and God will hear our groans and complaints, and regard our tears.

It is afterwards added, I will make dry her sea; for Babylon, as has already been stated, was surrounded by the streams of the Euphrates, and there was no easy access to it. The Prophet then compares the fortifications of Babylon to a sea and a fountain.

For who would have thought that the Euphrates could be dried up, which is so large a river and has no equal to it in all Europe? Even the Danube does not match the size of that river. Who then would have thought it possible that such a river could be made dry, which was like a sea, and its source inexhaustible?

God then intimates by these words that His power was such that all obstacles would vanish, and that He was resolved at the same time to execute His judgment on the Babylonians.