Yirmeyah 51:53

53 Though Bavel should ascend to Shomayim, and though she should fortify the height of her stronghold, yet from Me shall plunderers come unto her, saith Hashem.

Yirmeyah 51:53 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:53

Though Babylon should mount up to heaven
Could the walls of it, which were very high, two hundred cubits high, as Herodotus ^F16 says, be carried up as high as heaven; or the towers of it, which were exceeding high, ten foot higher than the walls, as Curtius ^F17 says, likewise be raised to the same height: and though she should fortify the height of her strength:
make her walls and towers as strong as they were high; unless this is to be understood particularly of the temple of Bel, in which was a solid tower, in length and thickness about six hundred and sixty feet; and upon this tower another; and so on to the number of eight, towers; and in the last of them a large temple, as the above historian ^F18 relates: but if these towers could have been piled up in a greater number, even so as to reach to heaven, it would have availed nothing against the God of heaven, to secure from his vengeance. The Targum is,

``if Babylon should be built with buildings as high as heaven, and should fortify the strong holds on high:''

[yet] from me shall spoilers come, saith the Lord;
the Medes and Persians, sent and commissioned by him, who would pull down and destroy her walls and towers, be they ever so high and strong.

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 L. 1. sive Clio, c. 178.
F17 Hist. l. 5. c. 1.
F18 Herodot. l. 1. c. 181.

Yirmeyah 51:53 In-Context

51 We are ashamed, because we have heard cherpah; shame hath covered our faces; for zarim are come into the Mikdeshei Beis Hashem.

52 Wherefore, hinei, the days are coming, saith Hashem, that I will visit [in punishment] her pesalim (graven images); and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

53 Though Bavel should ascend to Shomayim, and though she should fortify the height of her stronghold, yet from Me shall plunderers come unto her, saith Hashem.

54 A sound of a cry cometh from Bavel, and shever gadol (great destruction) from Eretz Kasdim;

55 Because Hashem hath plundered Bavel, and silenced her kol gadol (great voice); when her waves do roar like mayim rabbim, the sound of her roaring resounds;