Jeremiah 51:58

Broad walls. See ch. 50:15; see on ch. 51:30, 53.

High gates. According to a cuneiform description of Babylon, the city boasted eight main gates, besides several smaller ones. Another cuneiform inscription of Nebuchadnezzar (the so-called East India House Inscription) states that the leaves of the gates were of cedar covered with copper (KJV “brass”). Among the most impressive of the remains discovered at Babylon are the ruins of the Ishtar Gate, in the northern wall, through which passes one of the main thoroughfares of the city. The enamel-glazed bricks of this gate were molded to form fine life-sized reliefs of bulls (sacred to the god Adad) and “sirrush” (mythological dragonlike monsters sacred to Marduk). These figures were white and yellow upon a blue background. Altogether the excavators estimated a minimum of 575 of these animal figures on this one gate.

Folk in the fire. The sense of this passage seems more clearly expressed by the RSV: “The peoples labor for nought, and the nations weary themselves only for fire.” Compare Hab. 2:13.