¶“Therefore the desert creatures will live there with the jackals; The ostriches also will live in it. It will never again be inhabited Nor lived in from generation to generation.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore the wild animals of the desert with the wolves will dwell there. The ostriches will dwell therein; and it will be inhabited no more forever; neither will it be lived in from generation to generation.
- KJV Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
- BSB So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.
- NKJV “Thereforethe wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals, And the ostriches shall dwell in it. It shall be inhabited no more forever, Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
- NLT “Soon Babylon will be inhabited by desert animals and hyenas. It will be a home for owls. Never again will people live there; it will lie desolate forever.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Wild desert creatures will inhabit Babylon, which will never again be settled. Its desolation is permanent across all generations.
Overview
The once-glorious city becomes a haunt of jackals and ostriches, uninhabited forever. This fulfills the recurring prophetic picture of total, lasting ruin (Isaiah 13:20-22). The permanence of Babylon's desolation testifies that what stands against God has no future, while His kingdom endures eternally.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Isa 13:20–22It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
- Rev 18:2He cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird!
- Jer 25:12“It shall happen, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation,” says Yahweh, “for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it desolate forever.
- Jer 51:62–64and say, ‘Yahweh, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one will dwell in it, neither man nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever.’
- Rev 18:21–24A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all.
- Jer 50:12–13your mother will be utterly disappointed. She who bore you will be confounded. Behold, she shall be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
- Jer 51:43Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass by it.
- Isa 34:11–17But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.
- Jer 51:37–38Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
- Isa 14:23“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Jer 51:26They shall not take cornerstone from you, nor a stone for foundations; but you will be desolate for ever,” says Yahweh.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 50:39 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.