Jeremiah 51:58 (KJV)

What does Jeremiah 51:58 mean?

Jeremiah 51:58 says that Babylon’s impressive defenses will not save the city from destruction. The verse also pictures the hard work invested in Babylon ending in exhaustion and loss, rather than producing lasting security.

The Lord of hosts is the speaker. The broad walls and high gates represent the city’s strength, but the gates will become fuel for fire. The closing lines turn attention from the buildings to the people whose labor comes to nothing.

The Hebrew behind Jeremiah 51:58

• “utterly broken” — עָרַר (ʿarar): The word carries the sense of stripping or laying bare. Its repeated form gives force to the picture of the walls being completely dismantled.
• “vain” — רִיק (riq): The word means emptiness or something without result. Here it describes labor that yields no lasting gain.
• “folk” — לְאֹם (leʾom): The word means a people or nation. Alongside “people,” it suggests groups of people rather than just a few individual workers.

Why Jeremiah 51:58 matters

• The verse places Babylon’s fall in the mouth of “the LORD of hosts.” The destruction is presented as something God has announced, not merely as an accident or a prediction based on the city’s defenses.
• The workers’ effort and the city’s fate are closely linked. “The folk in the fire” pictures labor feeding a destructive end, while “they shall be weary” draws attention to the cost borne by those who worked.
• The wording echoes Habakkuk 2:13, where peoples also labor “in the very fire” and weary themselves “for very vanity.” That connection places Babylon’s destruction alongside a wider picture of nations exhausting themselves for a result that cannot endure.