John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 51:55

"For Jehovah layeth Babylon waste, and destroyeth out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered:" — Jeremiah 51:55 (ASV)

The reason for the crashing is now added, because God had resolved to lay Babylon waste and to reduce it to nothing. Jeremiah again calls the faithful to consider the power of God. He then says that it would not be a work done by humans, because God would exert His great power, which cannot be comprehended by human minds. He then contrasts the name of God with all creatures, as if he had said that what exceeds all human efforts would yet be easily done by God. Indeed, he represents God here as before our eyes and says that Babylon would perish, but that it was God who would lay it waste. He thus presents God here as already armed for the purpose of cutting off Babylon. And he will destroy from her the magnificent voice—that is, her immoderate boasting.

What follows is explained by many in a way I cannot approve; for they say that the 'waves' made a noise among the Babylonians when the city was populous. For where there is a large gathering of people, a great noise is heard, but solitude and desolation bring silence. They therefore explain the Prophet's words to mean that though waves—that is, noises—resounded in Babylon like great waters, and the sound of their voice went forth, God would nevertheless destroy their 'great' or 'magnificent voice.' But I have no doubt that what the Prophet meant by their 'great voice' was the grandiloquent boasting in which the Babylonians indulged during their prosperity. While the monarchy flourished, then, they spoke as if from a great height. Their silence from fear and shame would follow, as the Prophet intimates, when God checked that proud boasting.

But I understand what follows in a different sense, for I apply it to the Medes and the Persians. Consequently, there is a relative without an antecedent—a mode of speaking not uncommon in Hebrew. He then expresses how God would destroy or abolish the grandiloquent boasting of the Babylonians: because their waves (that is, of the Persians) would make a noise like great waters. This means the Persians and the Medes would rush upon them like impetuous waves, and thus the Babylonians would be brought to silence and reduced to desolation. When they were at peace and no enemy disturbed them, they then gave full vent to their pride. Thus, vaunting was the speech of Babylon as long as it flourished. But when enemies suddenly made an irruption, Babylon then became silent or mute on account of the frightful sound within it. We therefore see why he compares the Persians and the Medes to violent waves, which would break and put an end to that sound previously heard in Babylon.