Jeremiah 51:26

¹⁹Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ²⁰It 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. ²¹But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there. ²²Hyenas will cry in their fortresses, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.

⁴³Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells. No son of man passes by it.

²⁰“Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints, apostles, and prophets, for God has judged your judgment on her.”

²¹A 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. ²²The voice of harpists, minstrels, flute players, and trumpeters will be heard no more at all in you. No craftsman of whatever craft will be found any more at all in you. The sound of a mill will be heard no more at all in you. ²³The light of a lamp will shine no more at all in you. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will be heard no more at all in you, for your merchants were the princes of the earth; for with your sorcery all the nations were deceived. ²⁴In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth.”

¹²your mother will be utterly disappointed. She who bore you will be confounded. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. ¹³Because of the LORD’s wrath she won’t be inhabited, but she will be wholly desolate. Everyone who goes by Babylon will be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

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 the LORD of Armies.

⁴⁰As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbor cities,” says the LORD, “so no man will dwell there, neither will any son of man live therein. ⁴¹“Behold, a people comes from the north. A great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

⁸For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. ⁹Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch. ¹⁰It won’t be quenched night or day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever. ¹¹But 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. ¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing. ¹³Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches. ¹⁴The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature^[+] shall settle there, and shall find herself a place of rest. ¹⁵The arrow snake will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade. Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate. ¹⁶Search in the book of the LORD, and read: not one of these will be missing. None will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them. ¹⁷He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

³⁷Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

²⁹The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.