He ¹  shouted with a powerful voice: “Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great! She ²  has become a lair for demons, a haunt ³  for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detested beast. ⁴ 

Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns; thickets and weeds will grow ¹  in her fortified cities. Jackals will settle there; ostriches will live there. ² 

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 

“Hazor will become a permanent wasteland, a place where only jackals live. ¹  No one will live there. No human being will settle in it.” ² 

Go and make further arrangements. Determine precisely ¹  where he is ²  and who has seen him there, for I am told that he is extremely cunning.

The dry soil will become a pool of water, the parched ground springs of water. Where jackals once lived and sprawled out, grass, reeds, and papyrus will grow.

Yet you have battered us, leaving us a heap of ruins overrun by wild dogs; ¹  you have covered us with darkness. ² 

Listen! News is coming even now. ¹  The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ²  from a land in the north. ³  It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble, places where only jackals live.

The Lord said, ¹  “I will make Jerusalem ²  a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. ³  I will destroy the towns of Judah so that no one will be able to live in them.”

For I am aware of ¹  my rebellious acts; I am forever conscious of my sin. ² 

and Hebron; and for those in whatever other places David and his men had traveled.

The river’s channels bring joy to the city of God, ¹  the special, holy dwelling place of ²  the sovereign One. ³ 

Wild animals will rest there, the ruined ¹  houses will be full of hyenas. ²  Ostriches will live there, wild goats will skip among the ruins. ³ 

I ¹  tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak.

Then it says, ‘I will return to the home I left.’ ¹  When it returns, ²  it finds the house ³  empty, swept clean, and put in order. ⁴ 

“When an unclean spirit ¹  goes out of a person, ²  it passes through waterless places ³  looking for rest but ⁴  not finding any. Then ⁵  it says, ‘I will return to the home I left.’ ⁶ 

They will sing this lament over you: ¹  “‘How you have perished – you have vanished ²  from the seas, O renowned city, once mighty in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror! ³ 

Flocks and herds ¹  will lie down in the middle of it, as well as every kind of wild animal. ²  Owls ³  will sleep in the tops of its support pillars; they will hoot through the windows. ⁴  Rubble will cover the thresholds; ⁵  even the cedar work ⁶  will be exposed to the elements. ⁷