Matthew Poole and continuators on Jeremiah 51:23

23 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd, and his flock, and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman, and his yoke of oxen, and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers .

The sense of all these three verses is the same, viz. That God had made use, and was still making use of the Babylonians to waste and to destroy many nations, to spoil and impoverish much people, wasting their goods, routing their Armies, killing all sorts of their inhabitants.