Jeremiah 51 · Verse 58

Jeremiah 51:58

Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.

Jeremiah 51:58, King James Version

Jeremiah 51:58 in other translations

BSB	This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Babylon’s thick walls will be leveled, and her high gates consumed by fire. So the labor of the people will be for nothing; the nations will exhaust themselves to fuel the flames.”
WEB	The LORD of Armies says: “The wide walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown. Her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples will labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they will be weary.”
ASV	Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary.
YLT	Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, the wall of Babylon--The broad one--is utterly made bare, And her high gates with fire are burnt, And peoples labour in vain, And nations in fire, and have been weary!
DARBY	Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly laid bare, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; so that the peoples will have laboured in vain, and the nations for the fire: and they shall be weary.
BBE	The Lord of armies has said: The wide walls of Babylon will be completely uncovered and her high doorways will be burned with fire; so peoples keep on working for nothing, and the weariness of nations comes to an end in the smoke.
Webster	Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the people in the fire, and they shall be weary.

What does Jeremiah 51:58 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

58. broad walls--eighty-seven feet broad [Rosenmuller]; fifty cubits [Grotius]. A chariot of four horses abreast could meet another on it without collision. The walls were two hundred cubits high, and four hundred and eighty-five stadia, or sixty miles in extent. gates--one hundred in number, of brass; twenty-five on each of the four sides, the city being square; between the gates were two hundred and fifty towers. Berosus says triple walls encompassed the outer, and the same number the inner city. Cyrus caused the outer walls to be demolished. Taking the extent of the walls to be three hundred and sixty-five stadia, as Diodorus states, it is said two hundred thousand men completed a stadium each day, so that the whole was completed in one year. labour ... in the fire--The event will show that the builders of the walls have "labored" only for the "fire" in which they shall be consumed, "In the fire" answers to the parallel, "burned with fire." Translate, "shall have labored in vain," &c. Compare Job 3:14, "built desolate places for themselves," that is, grand places, soon about to be desolate ruins. Jeremiah has in view here Ha 2:13.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 58 The broad walls of Babylon - Herodotus, who saw these walls, says, "The city was a regular square, each side of which was one hand red and twenty stadia, the circumference four hundred and eighty stadia. It was surrounded by a wall fifty cubits broad, and two hundred cubits high; and each side had twenty-five brazen gates." - Herod. lib. 1 c. 178. Had not Cyrus resorted to stratagem, humanly speaking, he could not have taken this city. For the destruction of this wall and its very vestiges, see on Isa 13:19 (note).

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Jeremiah 51:1-58

Babylon's doom; God's controversy with her; encouragements from thence to the Israel of God. (Jr 51:1-58) The confirming of this. (Jr 51:59-64) Verses 1-58 The particulars of this prophecy are dispersed and interwoven, and the same things left and returned to again. Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shall secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Wherever we…

Read the full comment on Jeremiah 51:1-58 →

Jeremiah 51:58 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

כֹּֽה\־koh-thusH3541

אָמַ֞ר'a.Marhe saysH559

יְהוָ֣הYah.wehYahwehH3068

צְבָא֗וֹתtze.va.'otof hostsH6635

חֹ֠מוֹתCho.mot[the] walls ofH2346

בָּבֶ֤לba.VelBabylonH894

הָֽרְחָבָה֙ha.re.cha.Vah<the> broadH7342

עַרְעֵ֣ר'ar.'Erutterly <demolish>H6209

תִּתְעַרְעָ֔רtit.'ar.'Arit will be demolishedH6209

וּשְׁעָרֶ֥יהָu.she.'a.Rei.haand gates itsH8179

הַגְּבֹהִ֖יםha.ge.vo.Him<the> highH1364

בָּאֵ֣שׁba.'Eshwith <the> fireH784

יִצַּ֑תּוּyi.Tza.tuthey will be kindledH3341

וְיִֽגְע֨וּve.yig.'Uand they may laborH3021

עַמִּ֧ים'a.MimpeoplesH5971

בְּדֵי\־be.dei-for [the] sufficiency ofH1767

רִ֛יקrikemptinessH7385

וּלְאֻמִּ֥יםu.le.'u.Mimand peoplesH3816

בְּדֵי\־be.dei-for [the] sufficiency ofH1767

אֵ֖שׁ'eshfireH784

וְיָעֵֽפוּ\׃\ \סve.ya.'E.fuand they grow wearyH3286

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Jeremiah 51:58

Habakkuk 2:13
Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
Jeremiah 51:44
And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
Jeremiah 51:64
And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 50:15
Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.
Isaiah 45:1-2
Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
Psalms 127:1
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
Jeremiah 51:30
The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
Isaiah 65:23
They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.
Jeremiah 51:9
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The broad walls of Babylon. or, The walls of broad Babylon.According to the testimony of Herodotus, the circumference of the walls of Babylon was 480 stadia, or 60 miles, their breadth 50 cubits, and their height 200 cubits; but when Darius became master of the place, B.C. 516, he took away all their 100 gates of brass, and beat down their walls to 50 cubits; and now not a vestige of these immense fortifications remains, to mark the site of this once mighty city!
44; 50:15
broken. or, made naked. high gates.
30; Isa 45:1,2
the people.
9,64; Ps 127:1; Isa 65:23; Hab 2:13

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Jeremiah 51:57
And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
Jeremiah 51:58
Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.
Jeremiah 51:59
The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.

Read all of Jeremiah 51

Jeremiah 51:58 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Así ha dicho Jehová de los ejércitos: El muro ancho de Babilonia será derribado enteramente, y sus altas puertas serán quemadas á fuego; y en vano trabajarán pueblos y gentes en el fuego, y se cansarán.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Ainsi dit l’ Éternel des armées: La large muraille de Babylone sera entièrement rasée, et ses hautes portes seront brûlées par le feu; et les peuples auront travaillé pour néant, et les peuplades pour le feu, et elles seront lasses.
German Elberfelder 1871	So spricht Jehova der Heerscharen: Die Mauern von Babel, die breiten, sollen gänzlich geschleift und seine hohen Tore mit Feuer verbrannt werden. -Und so mühen sich Völker vergebens ab, und Völkerschaften fürs Feuer, und sie ermatten.
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Hæc dicit Dominus exercituum: Murus Babylonis ille latissimus suffossione suffodietur, et portæ ejus excelsæ igni comburentur, et labores populorum ad nihilum, et gentium in ignem erunt, et disperibunt.