Jérémie 51:53

53 Quand Babylone s'élèverait jusqu'aux cieux, et quand elle rendrait inaccessible sa forteresse, les dévastateurs y entreront de par moi, dit l'Éternel.

Jérémie 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.

Jérémie 51:53 In-Context

51 Nous sommes honteux, direz-vous, des opprobres que nous avons entendus; la confusion a couvert nos faces, quand des étrangers sont venus contre les sanctuaires de la maison de l'Éternel.
52 C'est pourquoi, voici les jours viennent, dit l'Éternel, où je visiterai ses images taillées, et les blessés à mort gémiront par tout son pays.
53 Quand Babylone s'élèverait jusqu'aux cieux, et quand elle rendrait inaccessible sa forteresse, les dévastateurs y entreront de par moi, dit l'Éternel.
54 De Babylone un cri se fait entendre, un grand fracas, du pays des Caldéens.
55 Car l'Éternel va ravager Babylone, il va faire cesser au milieu d'elle la grande voix. Leurs flots grondent comme les grosses eaux; leur voix retentit avec éclat.
The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.