“‘A drought
Against her waters!
Thus they may be dried up!
It is a land of images.
They go mad
Over idols.
Therefore,
Wild animals
Shall live
With hyenas
In Babylon.
Ostriches
Shall inhabit her.
She shall never again
Be inhabited
For all generations.
As when God overthrew
Sodom and
Gomorrah,
With their neighbors,
So no one
Shall live there.
No one
Shall settle there.’
Says Yahweh.”
Yahweh was clear. He was going to make Babylon an abandoned desert. The waters of the land would dry up and leave a drought. It is hard to believe that he meant the Tigris River and the Euphrates River. He wanted their images and idols destroyed. Thus wild animals, hyenas, and ostriches would live in Babylon. No humans would live or settle in Babylon. It would become like the ancient destroyed cites of Sodom and Gomorrah as in Genesis, chapter 19, a desolation.