Jeremiah 51:58

Jeremiah 51:58 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)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.
• New International Version (NIV)This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled and her high gates set on fire; the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”
• English Standard Version (ESV)"Thus says the Lord of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The peoples labor for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for fire."
• New King James Version (NKJV)Thus says the Lord of hosts: “The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, And her high gates shall be burned with fire; The people will labor in vain, And the nations, because of the fire; And they shall be weary.”

Context of Jeremiah 51:58

56An army is coming to destroy Babylon. They will take hold of its brave soldiers. They will break their weapons. The Lord is a God who punishes people as they deserve. He always pays them back for their sins. 57I will make Babylon's officers and its wise men drunk, as well as its rulers, its leaders and its soldiers. They will sleep for ever and they will never wake up again.’ That is what the King says. His name is the Lord Almighty. The Lord Almighty says this: ‘The enemy will completely knock down the strong walls of Babylon. They will burn its high gates with fire. The nations work very hard, but their work is useless. They make themselves tired, but fire destroys all their work.’ 59This is the command that the prophet Jeremiah gave to the king's officer Seraiah. Seraiah was the son of Neriah and the grandson of Mahseiah. He took the message when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah. That happened in the fourth year that Zedekiah had ruled Judah as king. 60Jeremiah had written on a scroll a list of all the terrible troubles that would happen to Babylon. Those were all the messages that he had written about Babylon.

Jeremiah 51:58 word by word

כֹּֽה־אָמַ֞ר יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֗וֹת חֹ֠מוֹת בָּבֶ֤ל הָֽרְחָבָה֙ עַרְעֵ֣ר תִּתְעַרְעָ֔ר וּשְׁעָרֶ֥יהָ הַגְּבֹהִ֖ים בָּאֵ֣שׁ יִצַּ֑תּוּ וְיִֽגְע֨וּ עַמִּ֧ים בְּדֵי־רִ֛יק וּלְאֻמִּ֥ים בְּדֵי־אֵ֖שׁ וְיָעֵֽפוּ׃ סRead the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Thus saithאָמַר'âmar · to sayH559
• the Lordיְהֹוָהyehôvâh · LORDH3068
• of hostsצָבָאtsâbâ' tsebâ'âh · HostsH6635
• The broadרָחָבrâchâb · broad: wideH7342
• wallsחוֹמָהchômâh · wallH2346
• of Babylonבָּבֶ֫ל, בָּבֶלbâbel · BabylonH894
• shall be utterlyעָרַר‛ârar · to stripH6209
• and her highגָּבֹהַּgâbôhha gâbôhha · highH1364
• gatesשַׁ֫עַרsha‛ar · gateH8179
• shall be burnedיָצַתyâtsath · to kindleH3341
• with fireאֵשׁ'êsh · fireH784
• and the peopleעַם‛am · peopleH5971
• shall labourיָגֵעַyâga‛ · be weary/toilH3021
• in vainרִיקrîyq · vainH7385
• and the folkלְאֹםle'ôm le'ôm · peopleH3816
• inדַּיday · sufficiencyH1767
• and they shall be wearyיָעֵףyâ‛aph · to faintH3286

Cross-references for Jeremiah 51:58

• Jeremiah 51:44I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon. I will cause him to give back everything that he has taken. Nations will never go to worship him again. Yes, the walls of Babylon will fall down!’
• Jeremiah 50:15Shout as you attack the city from all sides. Its people are ready to stop fighting. Its strong towers will fall down. You will knock down its walls. The Lord is punishing Babylon, so punish the people for their sins! Do the same thing to them that they have done to other people.
• Jeremiah 51:30The brave soldiers of Babylonia are no longer fighting! They remain inside their strong buildings. Their strength has gone! They are as weak as women. In their cities, enemy soldiers are burning their houses. They have broken down the city gates.
• Isaiah 45:1The Lord says this to Cyrus, the king that he has chosen to serve him: ‘I hold your right hand. I give you power over other nations, to take away the weapons of their kings. I will open the gates of cities in front of you, and they will stay open.
• Jeremiah 51:9The foreign people in Babylon say, “We tried to make its wounds better, but it was not possible to do it. Now we must leave it. We must each go back to our own country. Its punishment will have no end. It will reach as high as the sky!”
• Psalms 127:1The Lord must build your house. If not, the work of the builders is useless. The Lord must keep the city safe. If not, the city guards are useless.
• Isaiah 65:23Their work will not be useless. They will not give birth to children who will live in fear. Instead, the Lord will bless their children. He will bless them and their descendants with them.
• Habakkuk 2:13Listen! The Lord Almighty has commanded this: All the work that people do to get things for themselves is useless. The things that the nations work so hard to get will become smoke!

Commentaries on Jeremiah 51:58

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 58The 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…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 58The broad walls - Herodotus makes the breadth of the walls 85 English feet. Broken - See the margin. i. e., the ground beneath them shall be laid bare by their demolition. The people - Or, peoples. Jeremiah concludes his prophecy with a quotation from Habakkuk; applying the words to the stupendous works intended to make Babylon an eternal city, but which were to end in such early and utter disappointment.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 5858. 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…Read the comment

Topics related to Jeremiah 51:58

• Babylon
• Persia
• Walls, of the Cities
• War

In the dictionaries

• Babylon
• Babylon, Babylonia, Babylonian
• Lord of Hosts
• Device
• Empty
• Hold
• Mount
• Broad
• Ezekiel
• Faint

Commentaries on Jeremiah 51

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings