Jeremiah 51:37

51:37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ¹ 

It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn,

a place where no one lives. ² 

Jeremiah 51:43

51:43 The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins.

She has become a dry and barren desert.

No one lives in those towns any more.

No one even passes through them. ³ 

Jeremiah 50:12-13

50:12 But Babylonia will be put to great shame.

The land where you were born ⁴  will be disgraced.

Indeed, ⁵  Babylonia will become the least important of all nations.

It will become a dry and barren desert.

50:13 After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. ⁶ 

It will be totally desolate.

All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn

because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ⁷ 

Isaiah 13:19-22

13:19 Babylon, the most admired ⁸  of kingdoms,

the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, ⁹ 

will be destroyed by God

just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. ¹⁰ 

13:20 No one will live there again;

no one will ever reside there again. ¹¹ 

No bedouin ¹²  will camp ¹³  there,

no shepherds will rest their flocks ¹⁴  there.

13:21 Wild animals will rest there,

the ruined ¹⁵  houses will be full of hyenas. ¹⁶ 

Ostriches will live there,

wild goats will skip among the ruins. ¹⁷ 

13:22 Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses,

jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces. ¹⁸ 

Her time is almost up, ¹⁹ 

her days will not be prolonged. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 14:23

14:23 “I will turn her into a place that is overrun with wild animals ²¹ 

and covered with pools of stagnant water.

I will get rid of her, just as one sweeps away dirt with a broom,” ²² 

says the Lord who commands armies.

¹ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.” Compare 9:11.

² tn Heb “without an inhabitant.”

³ tn Heb “Its towns have become a desolation, [it has become] a dry land and a desert, a land which no man passes through them [referring to “her towns”] and no son of man [= human being] passes through them.” Here the present translation has followed the suggestion of BHS and a number of the modern commentaries in deleting the second occurrence of the word “land,” in which case the words that follow are not a relative clause but independent statements. A number of modern English versions appear to ignore the third feminine plural suffixes which refer back to the cities and refer the statements that follow to the land.

⁴ tn Heb “Your mother will be utterly shamed, the one who gave you birth…” The word “mother” and the parallel term “the one who gave you birth” are used metaphorically for the land of Babylonia. For the figure compare the usage in Isa 50:1 (Judah) and Hos 2:2, 5 (2:4, 7 HT) and see BDB 52 s.v. אֵם 2 and 408 s.v. יָלַד Qal.2.c.

⁵ tn Heb “Behold.” For the use of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6.

⁶ tn Heb “From [or Because of] the wrath of the Lord it will be uninhabited.” The causal connection is spelled out more clearly and actively and the first person has been used because the speaker is the Lord. The referent “it” has been spelled out clearly from the later occurrence in the verse, “all who pass by Babylon.”

⁷ sn Compare Jer 49:17 and the study note there and see also the study notes on 18:16 and 19:8.

⁸ tn Or “most beautiful” (NCV, TEV).

⁹ tn Heb “the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and Babylon…will be like the overthrow by God of Sodom and Gomorrah.” On מַהְפֵּכַת (mahpekhat, “overthrow”) see the note on the word “destruction” in 1:7.

¹¹ tn Heb “she will not be inhabited forever, and she will not be dwelt in to generation and generation (i.e., forever).” The Lord declares that Babylon, personified as a woman, will not be inhabited. In other words, her people will be destroyed and the Chaldean empire will come to a permanent end.

¹² tn Or “Arab” (NAB, NASB, NIV); cf. CEV, NLT “nomads.”

¹³ tn יַהֵל (yahel) is probably a corrupted form of יֶאֱהַל (ye’ehal). See GKC 186 §68.k.

¹⁴ tn The words “their flocks” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text does not supply the object here, but see Jer 33:12.

¹⁵ tn The word “ruined” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹⁶ tn The precise referent of this word in uncertain. See HALOT 29 s.v. *אֹחַ. Various English versions translate as “owls” (e.g., NAB, NASB), “wild dogs” (NCV); “jackals” (NIV); “howling creatures” (NRSV, NLT).

¹⁷ tn Heb “will skip there.”

¹⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “wild dogs will yip among his widows, and jackals in the palaces of pleasure.” The verb “yip” is supplied in the second line; it does double duty in the parallel structure. “His widows” makes little sense in this context; many emend the form (אַלְמנוֹתָיו, ’almnotayv) to the graphically similar אַרְמְנוֹתֶיהָ (’armÿnoteha, “her fortresses”), a reading that is assumed in the present translation. The use of “widows” may represent an intentional wordplay on “fortresses,” indicating that the fortresses are like dejected widows (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:308, n. 1).

¹⁹ tn Heb “near to come is her time.”

²⁰ sn When was the prophecy of Babylon’s fall fulfilled? Some argue that the prophecy was fulfilled in 689 b.c. when the Assyrians under Sennacherib sacked and desecrated the city (this event is alluded to in 23:13). This may have been an initial phase in the fulfillment of the prophecy, but the reference to the involvement of the Medes (v. 17) and the suggestion that Babylon’s demise will bring about the restoration of Israel (14:1-2) indicate that the fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians in 538 b.c. is the primary focus of the prophecy. (After all, the Lord did reveal to Isaiah that the Chaldeans [not the Assyrians] would someday conquer Jerusalem and take the people into exile [see 39:5-7].) However, the vivid picture of destruction in vv. 15-22 raises a problem. The Medes and Persians did not destroy the city; in fact Cyrus’ takeover of Babylon, though preceded by a military campaign, was relatively peaceful and even welcomed by some Babylonian religious officials. How then does one explain the prophecy’s description of the city’s violent fall? As noted above, the events of 689 b.c. and 538 b.c. may have been merged in the prophecy. However, it is more likely that the language is stylized and exaggerated for rhetorical effect. See Isa 34:11-15; Jer 50:39-40 (describing Babylon’s fall in 538 b.c.); 51:36-37 (describing Babylon’s fall in 538 b.c.); Zeph 2:13-15; the extra-biblical Sefire treaty curses; and Ashurbanipal’s description of the destruction of Elam in his royal annals. In other words, the events of 538 b.c. essentially, though not necessarily literally, fulfill the prophecy.

²¹ tn Heb “I will make her into a possession of wild animals.” It is uncertain what type of animal קִפֹּד (qippod) refers to. Some suggest a rodent (cf. NASB, NRSV “hedgehog”), others an owl (cf, NAB, NIV, TEV).

²² tn Heb “I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction.”