Bible Strands
Jeremiah 50:39
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Jeremiah pronounces judgment against Babylon, declaring that idolatry has triggered divine desolation. The oracle addresses Judah, confirming that the conquered empire will suffer permanent abandonment.
The words — The Hebrew לָכֵן (laken) means "therefore," marking the causal result of the preceding idolatry. The phrase בְּנוֹת יַעֲנָה (benot yaʿănâh) literally reads "daughters of an ostrich," naming the specific desert animals that will occupy the site.
The thread — The text's claim of irreversible abandonment runs parallel to Isaiah 13:20, which states the city will never be settled from generation to generation, and Revelation 18:2, which describes the fallen city as a demon's haunt. Jeremiah 25:12 also anchors this event within the seventy-year punishment timeline.
Why it lands — The passage states that persistent worship of graven images produces total, unending desolation. It requires readers to acknowledge that human empires built on false worship collapse beyond recovery and that divine judgment operates independently of human power.
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
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.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 13:20 She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.
- Revelation 18:2 And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.
- Jeremiah 25:12 But when seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, declares the LORD, and I will make it an everlasting desolation.
- Isaiah 14:23 “I will make her a place for owls and for swamplands; I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
- Isaiah 34:11 The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.
- Jeremiah 50:12 your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who bore you will be disgraced. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
- Jeremiah 51:26 No one shall retrieve from you a cornerstone or a foundation stone, because you will become desolate forever,” declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 51:37 Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.
- Jeremiah 51:43 Her cities have become a desolation, a dry and arid land, a land where no one lives, where no son of man passes through.
- Jeremiah 51:62 and say, ‘O LORD, You have promised to cut off this place so that no one will remain—neither man nor beast. Indeed, it will be desolate forever.’