John Gill Commentary Jeremiah 51:20

"Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war: and with thee will I break in pieces the nations; and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;" — Jeremiah 51:20 (ASV)

You [are] my battle axe [and] weapons of war
This is said by the Lord, either to Cyrus, as some, to which our version inclines, whom God made use of as an instrument to subdue nations and kingdoms, and destroy them; see (Isaiah 45:1); or rather Babylon, and the king of it, who has been the hammer of the earth, (Jeremiah 50:23); as it may be rendered here, "you [are] my hammer" ^F19; or, "have been"; an instrument in his hands, of beating the nations to pieces, as stones by a hammer, and of destroying them, as by weapons of war: this, and what follows, are observed to show, that though Babylon had been used by the Lord for the destruction of others, it should not be secure from it itself, but should share the same fate; unless this is to be understood of the church of God, and kingdom of Christ, which in the latter day will break in pieces all the kingdoms of the earth, (Daniel 2:44); which sense seems to have some countenance and confirmation from (Jeremiah 51:24) "in your sight". The Targum is, you are a scatterer before me, a city in which are warlike arms; which seems to refer to Babylon:

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for with you will I break in pieces the nations, and with you will I
destroy kingdoms ;
or, "with you I have broke in pieces, [and] have destroyed"; the future instead of the past ^F20; as the nations and kingdoms of Judea, Egypt, Edom, Moab, Ammon, and others: or, "that I may break in pieces" ^F21 and so it expresses the end for which he was a hammer, as well as the use he had been or would be of.

FOOTNOTES:

• F19: (yl hta Upm) "malleus es, [vel] fuisti mihi", Pagninus, Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt.
• F20: "Dispersi, perdidi", Lutherus; "conquassavi", Munster; "dissipavi", Piscator.
• F21: (ytupnw) "ut dissiparem", Junius & Tremellius; "ut dispergam", Schmidt.