Jeremiah 51:53

53 si ascenderit Babylon in caelum et firmaverit in excelso robur suum a me venient vastatores eius ait Dominus

Jeremiah 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.
FOOTNOTES:

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

Jeremiah 51:53 In-Context

51 confusi sumus quoniam audivimus obprobrium operuit ignominia facies nostras quia venerunt alieni super sanctificationem domus Domini
52 propterea ecce dies veniunt ait Dominus et visitabo super sculptilia eius et in omni terra eius mugiet vulneratus
53 si ascenderit Babylon in caelum et firmaverit in excelso robur suum a me venient vastatores eius ait Dominus
54 vox clamoris de Babylone et contritio magna de terra Chaldeorum
55 quoniam vastavit Dominus Babylonem et perdidit ex ea vocem magnam et sonabunt fluctus eorum quasi aquae multae dedit sonitum vox eorum
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.