John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 51:49

"As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land." — Jeremiah 51:49 (ASV)

The words literally read as follows: “As Babylon, that they might fall, the slain of Israel, so for Babylon they shall fall, the slain of all the lands.” Some, omitting the ל, lamed, in the second clause, render the passage this way: “As the slain of Israel have fallen through Babylon, so by Babylon shall they fall.” And others render the last part like the first: “through Babylon.”

But the simpler rendering is the one I have given: namely, that this would be the reward God would give Babylon—that they would fall everywhere throughout its whole land, just as it had killed the people of Israel. For the Prophet no doubt had this in view: to alleviate the sorrow of the godly with some consolation; the ground of this consolation was that God would be the avenger of all the evils the Babylonians had inflicted on them.

It is a heavy trial when we think that we are disregarded by God and that our enemies oppress us with impunity according to their own will. The Prophet, then, testifies that God would by no means allow so many of the Israelites to perish unpunished, for He would eventually repay the Babylonians what they deserved—that those who destroyed others should, in their turn, be destroyed.

We may now easily understand what the Prophet means: “As Babylon,” he says, “has made many in Israel to fall, so now the Babylonians themselves shall fall.” To render ל, lamed, as “through,” or “on account of,” is improper.

Then he says the Babylonians themselves shall fall, the slain of the whole land. By “the whole land,” I do not understand the whole world, as other interpreters do, but Chaldea only. Therefore, everywhere in Chaldea, those who had been so cruel as to shed innocent blood everywhere would perish.

And though that saying is generally true, Whoso sheddeth man’s blood shall be punished; yet the word is especially addressed to the Church. God, then, avenges all slaughters because He cannot bear His own image, which He has impressed on human beings, to be violated. But as He has a paternal care for His Church, He is in a special manner the avenger of the cruelty that the ungodly exercise towards the faithful.

In short, the Prophet means that though God may allow the ungodly to rage against His Church for a time, yet He will, at the proper time, be its avenger, so that those who have been so cruel shall be slain everywhere.

But we learn from this that we should by no means despair when God allows so much liberty to the ungodly that they slay the miserable and the innocent, for the same thing happened previously to the ancient people. It was the Church of God in which the Chaldeans committed the carnage about which the Prophet speaks: the children of God were then slain as sheep.

If the same thing should happen to us today, there would be no reason for us to despond, but rather to wait for the time of vengeance of which the Prophet speaks here. For experience will then show how precious to God is the life of all the godly.