Bible Strands
Jeremiah 51:53
Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens and fortifies her lofty stronghold, the destroyers I send will come against her,” declares the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through Jeremiah against Babylon, delivering a judgment oracle immediately after announcing the punishment of Babylon's idols and immediately before reporting the city's coming destruction.
The words — תַעֲלֶ֤ה (ta.'a.Leh) literally means "it will go up," and תְבַצֵּ֖ר (te.va.Tzer) literally means "it will fortify," both describing Babylon's attempt to build a defensive position.
The thread — The text's imagery of ascending to the heavens echoes the tower builders in Genesis 11:4 and the psalmist's declaration in Psalm 139:8, while Jeremiah 49:16 applies the same principle to proud, fortified dwellers.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to acknowledge that the text explicitly states human efforts to reach maximum height or strength cannot prevent the destroyers the LORD sends.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord.
Cross-references
- Genesis 11:4 “Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”
- Jeremiah 49:16 The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks, O occupiers of the mountain summit. Though you elevate your nest like the eagle, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
- Psalms 139:8 If I ascend to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.
- Jeremiah 51:25 “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, you who devastate the whole earth, declares the LORD. I will stretch out My hand against you; I will roll you over the cliffs and turn you into a charred mountain.
- Obadiah 1:3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks whose habitation is the heights, who say in your heart, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
- Isaiah 10:6 I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
- Isaiah 13:2 Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
- Isaiah 13:17 Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.
- Isaiah 14:12 How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations.
- Isaiah 41:25 I have raised up one from the north, and he has come—one from the east who calls on My name. He will march over rulers as if they were mortar, like a potter who treads the clay.