Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 51:58

"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." — Jeremiah 51:58 (ASV)

Her high gates shall be burned with fire.— These were part of the works on which Nebuchadnezzar prided himself as the restorer of the city. The inscription already quoted refers to these as well as to the walls: “Babylon is the refuge of the god Merodach. I have finished Imgur Bel, his great enclosure. In the threshold of the great gates I have adjusted folding-doors in brass.” (Oppert, as cited above; compare also Records of the Past, v. pp. 125, 127).

The people shall labour in vain. — The words are all but verbally identical, in some manuscripts absolutely so, with those of Habakkuk 2:13. In both the thought is that the stately edifices which had been raised with so much toil by the slave-labour of Nebuchadnezzar’s subjects and captives should all be fruitless. The walls of Babylon are described by Herodotus (1, 173), possibly with some exaggeration, as 50 cubits (= 75 feet) thick and 200 high.