Bible Strands
Isaiah 13:22
Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet delivers a divine oracle of judgment against Babylon, immediately following the description of its desolation in the preceding verse.
The words — The Hebrew אִיִּים ('i.Yim) translates literally to hyenas, and עֹ֑נֶג ('O.neg) means delight or luxury. These lexical choices establish the contrast between the city's former opulence and its future state as a wild animal habitat.
The thread — The imagery of fortified cities reduced to ruins inhabited by desert creatures appears in Isaiah 25:2 and Jeremiah 51:33. These passages share the prophetic pattern of divine judgment turning human strongholds into ecological wastelands.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that historical power and architectural achievement are temporally bounded and subject to sudden, irreversible termination.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 25:2 Indeed, You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin. The fortress of strangers is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.
- Isaiah 35:7 The parched ground will become a pool, the thirsty land springs of water. In the haunt where jackals once lay, there will be grass and reeds and papyrus.
- Jeremiah 51:33 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.”
- Deuteronomy 32:35 Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”
- Isaiah 34:13 Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
- Ezekiel 7:7 Doom has come to you, O inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near; there is panic on the mountains instead of shouts of joy.
- Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision awaits an appointed time; it testifies of the end and does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it, since it will surely come and will not delay.
- 2 Peter 2:3 In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.
- 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.