Jeremiah 51:53

53 Even if Babylon climbed a ladder to the moon and pulled up the ladder so that no one could get to her, That wouldn't stop me. I'd make sure my avengers would reach her." God's Decree.

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 How we've been humiliated, taunted and abused, kicked around for so long that we hardly know who we are! And we hardly know what to think - our old Sanctuary, God's house, desecrated by strangers.
52 "I know, but trust me: The time is coming" - God's Decree - "When I will bring doom on her no-god idols, and all over this land her wounded will groan.
53 Even if Babylon climbed a ladder to the moon and pulled up the ladder so that no one could get to her, That wouldn't stop me. I'd make sure my avengers would reach her." God's Decree.
54 "But now listen! Do you hear it? A cry out of Babylon! An unearthly wail out of Chaldea!
55 God is taking his wrecking bar to Babylon. We'll be hearing the last of her noise - Death throes like the crashing of waves, death rattles like the roar of cataracts.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.