Jeremiah 51:53

53 Even if Babylon grows until she touches the sky, and even if she makes her highest cities strong, I will send people to destroy her," says 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 people of Judah are disgraced, because we have been insulted. We have been shamed, because strangers have gone into the holy places of the Lord's Temple!"
52 So the Lord says, "The time is coming soon when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Wounded people will cry with pain all over that land.
53 Even if Babylon grows until she touches the sky, and even if she makes her highest cities strong, I will send people to destroy her," says the Lord.
54 "Sounds of people crying are heard in Babylon. Sounds of people destroying things are heard in the land of the Babylonians.
55 The Lord is destroying Babylon and making the loud sounds of the city become silent. Enemies come roaring in like ocean waves. The roar of their voices is heard all around.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.