What Does Jeremiah 51:58 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Babylon’s broadness is not spaciousness: its walls and gates collapse while the labor spent on them comes to nothing.
THE MEANING
Even what looks impregnable can be broken open and burned. People can spend themselves on work that yields emptiness, ending in exhaustion rather than security.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this dissolves is that enough scale, fortification, and labor can make a human order unbreakable.
THE ROOT
הָרְחָבָה
ha-reḥavah
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ב
r-ḥ-b
To be broad or spacious.
“broad” in this verse is ha-reḥavah. This root can describe physical breadth and an open place. Here it describes Babylon’s wall: impressive width does not itself make a place spacious or secure.
ALSO GROWS
merḥav: A wide or open place.
מֶרְחָב
This branch makes the distinction visible: a broad wall can burn, while spaciousness can describe being brought out of distress.
reḥov: An open square or street.
רְחֹב
The root also names space people can move through, underscoring that the wall’s sheer size is not the same as freedom.
רִיק
riq
GROWS FROM
ר־י־ק
r-y-q
Empty; to be or become empty.
“vain” in this verse is riq. The phrase places the people’s toil at emptiness: their effort has no lasting yield. The root makes the outcome concrete, the work comes back empty.
ALSO GROWS
req: Empty; emptiness.
רֵיק
This is the emptiness named in the verse as the destination of the people’s labor.
reqam: Empty-handed; without result.
רֵיקָם
This branch sharpens the image of effort that leaves its workers with nothing to show for it.
וְיִיגְעוּ
ve-yigʿu
GROWS FROM
י־ג־ע
y-g-ʿ
To toil and grow weary.
“labour” in this verse is ve-yigʿu. The word carries both exertion and weariness within its root. The people are not simply busy; the work consumes them, while the verse names its yield as emptiness.
ALSO GROWS
yāgēaʿ: Weary; worn out.
יָגֵעַ
This branch shows the bodily cost contained in the idea of toil.
yĕgîaʿ: Labor; the product of labor.
יְגִיעַ
This branch links the exertion to what it produces, making the verse’s contrast between effort and empty result especially clear.
THE PATTERN
Human effort and imposing structures cannot guarantee security when their work is emptied of lasting substance.
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.And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.THE THREAD
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.Jeremiah’s “broad” wall and the psalm’s “large place” share the root ר־ח־ב (r-ḥ-b), meaning broad or spacious. Here breadth belongs to walls that burn; in the psalm, spaciousness is where the distressed caller is set.
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