John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 51:5

"For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of Jehovah of hosts; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel." — Jeremiah 51:5 (ASV)

The Prophet here shows why God had resolved to treat the Babylonians with so much severity: specifically, because He would be the avenger of His own people. He also addresses a doubt that might have disturbed weak minds, for He seemed to have forsaken His people when He allowed them to be driven into exile.

As this was a kind of repudiation, as we have seen elsewhere, the Prophet now says that Israel had not been wholly widowed, nor Judah, by His God; as if he had said that the Jews and the Israelites were indeed, for a time, like widows, but this was not to be perpetual.

For, as we have said, the divorce was temporary, when God so forsook His Temple and the city that the miserable people were exposed to plunder. As long, then, as the will of their enemies prevailed, God seemed to have forsaken His people. It is of this widowhood that the Prophet now speaks; but he nevertheless testifies that Israel would not be wholly widowed by Jehovah His God.

He indeed alludes to that spiritual marriage, of which frequent mention is made. For God had, from the beginning, united the Church to Himself, as it were, by a marriage-bond; and the people, as is well known, had been so received into covenant that a spiritual marriage, as it were, was contracted.

Therefore, the Prophet now says that they were not widowed, in which he refers to the hope of deliverance. For it could not be denied that God had repudiated His people. But he shows that their chastisement would not be perpetual, because God would at length reconcile to Himself the people from whom He had been alienated and would restore them to the ancient condition and honor of a wife. He speaks of both kingdoms.

Then he adds, by Jehovah of hosts. By this title he sets forth the power of God, as if he had said that as God is faithful in His promises and constantly keeps His covenant, so He is not so lacking in power as to be unable to save His people and to rescue them, when it pleases Him, from death itself. He confirms this truth when he says, for the land of the Chaldeans is filled with sin on account of the Holy One of Israel, as if he had said that the land was abominable because it carried on war against God.

For when he speaks of the Holy One of Israel, he shows that God had such care for His people that He was prepared, when the suitable time came, to show Himself as their avenger. We now perceive, then, what the Prophet means when he says that Chaldea was filled with sin: specifically, because it provoked God when it thought that the wrong was done only to men.