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 

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 

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 

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.

Remember your covenant promises, ¹  for the dark regions of the earth are full of places where violence rules. 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.

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

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

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.”

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.

“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 

Then from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm raised in violence ¹  is broken. ² 

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

Avoid it, do not go on it; turn away from it, and go on. ¹ 

For wild animals ¹  are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate.

Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of the leopards.

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 

“And now my soul pours itself out within me; ¹  days of suffering take hold of me.

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

But they do not realize ¹  that the dead ²  are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave. ³