Habakkuk 2:13

In the very fire... for very vanity. The preposition is the same in both clauses, and means “for an equivalent in.” The sense is sufficiently conveyed if we render “labour only for the fire... weary themselves all for nothing.” The same expressions occur in Jeremiah’s denunciation of Babylon (Jeremiah 51:58). Both prophets predict that Jehovah shall render all this compulsory service fruitless. Jeremiah adds the explanatory clauses, “the broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire.”