Jeremiah 50:39
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. 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.
It belongs to the prophecy of doom and destruction pronounced against Babylon. It foretells that Babylon would become heaps without inhabitant, a desolate home for desert beasts, island beasts and owls, never again inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation, and the ruined site of ancient Babylon shows this fulfilled literally as a visible object-lesson. The prediction was spoken more than fifty years before the fall, when Babylon was most flourishing and one of the greatest cities in the world, and its exact fulfillment proves the inspiration of the prophet and the divine authenticity of the Bible. Beyond ancient Babylon it points to an antitypical Babylon, with a typical fulfillment in ancient Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians and an emphatic fulfillment in modern religious Babylon punished in the day of the Lord, fallen never to rise again. Its overthrow is God's judgment and defense of His people, coming after its iniquity was full and its idolatry judged, because Babylon refused the healing God offered and was not healed.
Babylon's Desolation Foretold and Fulfilled
Jeremiah 50:39 belongs to the prophecy of Babylon's doom. It foretells that Babylon would become heaps without inhabitant, a desolate dwelling of desert beasts, island beasts and owls, no more inhabited forever nor dwelt in from generation to generation. Its judgment would leave it desolate and uninhabited, with wild creatures dwelling there in lasting desolation from generation to generation as God's judgment and defense of his people. The present site of ancient Babylon shows this fulfilled literally, standing as a visible and striking object-lesson of fulfilled prophecy.
The prediction was spoken many years before its fall, more than fifty years before the event, when Babylon was most flourishing and one of the greatest cities in the world. It is now fulfilled in Babylon lying as a heap of ruins, a destruction recorded by Strabo, Herodotus and Xenophon. Its exact fulfillment proves the inspiration of the prophet and the divine authenticity of the Bible. It announces the fall of the first kingdom, Babylon the head of gold, from the stage so the Persian kingdom can be constructed from its ruins and take its place in succession onward to the end.
The chapter foretells the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians, naming the people who would accomplish it and giving the particular circumstances that would attend it. It was fulfilled suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, when his kingdom was numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Cyrus with the Medes and Persians besieged and entered Babylon, and Babylon was taken on every quarter and fell.
The destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon, for the prophecy foretold its ultimate desolation. Its ruin began when Cyrus made Susa the imperial seat, and later rebellion, Persian destruction, plunder, failed rebuilding, removal of inhabitants and decay brought the city to the permanently desolate state where wild creatures lived among its ruins. The city gradually fell into decay and was utterly desolate for many centuries, fulfilling the prophecy literally. Its site was regarded as haunted, with Arabs refusing to pitch tents there or pasture sheep.
The prophecy was written in Jeremiah's roll which Seraiah read in Babylon and then tied to a stone and cast into the Euphrates as a sign that Babylon would sink and not rise from the evil brought upon her. The buried mounds by the Euphrates, wandered over and dug up in modern times for stones, sculptured slabs, bricks, pottery, sarcophagi and other relics carried to London and Philadelphia, stand as its fulfillment.
Judgment, Type, and Application
Jeremiah 50 embraces both the fall of the ancient city of Babylon and the fall of its empire, which would come suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, and it points beyond ancient Babylon to an antitypical Babylon. Babylon in Jeremiah's day serves as a type of the great mystical Babylon described in Revelation. That antitypical Babylon is the apostate system that rules the nations.
The prophecy has a double fulfillment, with a typical fulfillment in ancient Babylon humbled by the Medes and Persians and an emphatic antitypical fulfillment in modern Babylon and all sinners punished in the day of the Lord. The final destruction of ancient Babylon portrays the destruction of modern religious Babylon when God brings earthly history to its close. Having refused the healing God offered, and her sins having reached their full measure, judgment came and she fell never to rise again.
The overthrow is God's judgment and defense of His people, sent as a divine message of judgment and warning after iniquity was full. The lasting desolation, in which the city is no longer inhabited and wild creatures dwell there, is connected with the Lord's judgment upon Babylon for its idolatry. Babylon ignored the warning and was not healed.
Great mystic Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity, mother and daughters together, just as the daughters of Jerusalem form part of Jerusalem and the daughters of Rabbah form part of Rabbah. When she rejected the solemn announcement that the hour of His judgment is come, God left her forever by His Spirit and called His people to come out of her. Her destruction immediately follows.
No human might, scheme, power, or wealth can save a city or nation that sows within herself error, confusion, destruction, and death, as shown when the kingdom was numbered and finished, weighed in the balances and found wanting, divided and given to the Medes and Persians, and Babylon was taken on every quarter and fell. Babylon's fall proves God's truth abides while her perverted principles do not stand. The desolation that follows the final overthrow of nations is one in which wild animals and birds remain and multiply among the ruins rather than being destroyed with the nations. During the thousand years between Christ's second coming and the resurrection of the wicked these wilderness creatures increase greatly and may provide food for the resurrected hosts, though what food will be available is not specified.