Thus says the LORD: See 2.2.

The LORD of hosts: See 2.19.

Since the broad wall of Babylon is a way of referring to Babylon’s security and strength, Good News Translation renders “The walls of mighty Babylon.”

For gates see 1.15.

Burned with fire is a Hebrew idiom (see 21.10; 34.2); Good News Translation has “burned down” and New Jerusalem Bible “burnt down.” New American Bible translates “destroyed by fire” and New International Version “set on fire.”

The passives shall be leveled and shall be burned with fire can be expressed as active verbs; for example, “The attacker will tear down to the ground the wide walls protecting Babylon, and burn down the gates of the city.”

The peoples labor … only for fire: These two lines emphasize how useless it is for peoples and nations to come to the support of Babylon, whose destiny is to end up in flames. Peoples and nations is combined into “nations” by Good News Translation. The last two lines can be translated as “The effort of the nations is to no avail. They wear themselves out only to see the flames destroy what they’ve done.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .