Jeremiah 51:53

53 If Babylon ascendeth into heaven, and maketh steadfast his strength on high, destroyers thereof shall come of me, saith the Lord. (Yea, even if Babylon goeth up into the heavens, and maketh steadfast its strength on high, its destroyers shall still come from me, saith the Lord.)

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 We be shamed, for we heard shame; shame covered our faces, for aliens came on the hallowing of the house of the Lord. (We be shamed, and disgraced; yea, shame covered our faces, for strangers, or foreigners, came into the hallowed places of the House of the Lord.)
52 Therefore lo! days come, saith the Lord, and I shall visit on the graven images of Babylon, and in all the land thereof a wounded man shall bellow. (And so lo! days shall come, saith the Lord, and I shall punish Babylon for its carved idols, and through all that land the wounded shall bellow, or shall moan and groan.)
53 If Babylon ascendeth into heaven, and maketh steadfast his strength on high, destroyers thereof shall come of me, saith the Lord. (Yea, even if Babylon goeth up into the heavens, and maketh steadfast its strength on high, its destroyers shall still come from me, saith the Lord.)
54 The voice of a crier of Babylon, and great sorrow of the land of Chaldees, (The sound of crying in Babylon, and the sound of great sorrow in the land of the Chaldeans,)
55 for the Lord destroyed Babylon, and lost of it a great voice; and the waves of them shall sound as many waters. The voice of them gave sound, (for the Lord destroyed Babylon, yea, destroyed its great voice; and the waves of the attacking armies shall sound like many waters. Their voices made a great noise,)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.