Isaiah 13:21

21 But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full [of] howling creatures, and the daughters of ostriches will live there, and goats will dance there.

Isaiah 13:21 Meaning and Commentary

Ver. 21. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there
What sort of creatures are meant is not certain. The Targum renders it by a word which signifies monstrous, astonishing creatures; the Latin interpreter of it calls them apes. Jarchi and Kimchi say such are intended as are called martens or sables, a creature of the weasel kind. The Hebrew word does not much differ from the Arabic one used for "wild cats": and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures;
whose voices are very mournful and unpleasant. Aben Ezra says such creatures are meant, that those that see them are amazed at them. Jarchi declares they are a kind of creatures he was ignorant of; and Kimchi thinks they are the same with "furon", or "ferrets": and the Latin interpreter of the Targum renders the word that uses by "weasels": and owls shall dwell there;
or "the daughters of the owl", or "of the ostriches", as the Targum and Syriac version; with which agrees the Vulgate Latin, rendering the word "ostriches", as it is in ( Lamentations 4:3 ) ; the Septuagint version translates it "sirens", or "mermaids": and satyrs shall dance there;
a sort of monstrous creatures with the ancients, painted half men and half goats; the upper part of them like men, except the horns on their heads, and the lower parts like goats, and all over hairy; and the word here used signifies hairy; and is used for goats, and sometimes for devils, either because they have appeared in this form, as Kimchi says, to them that believe them; or because they, by their appearance, inject such horror in men, as cause their hair to stand upright: hence the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret it of devils here; and so the Septuagint version, and those that follow it, the Syriac and Arabic, render it, "and demons shall dance there": with this agrees the account of mystical Babylon, ( Revelation 18:2 ) .

Isaiah 13:21 In-Context

19 And Babylon, [the] glory of kingdoms, the splendor of the Chaldeans' pride, will be like {when God overthrew} Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 It will not be inhabited forever, and it will not be dwelled in {forever}; and no Arab will pitch a tent there, and shepherds will not allow [their flocks] to lie down there.

21 But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full [of] howling creatures, and the daughters of ostriches will live there, and goats will dance there.

22 And hyenas will answer in its palaces, and jackals in the pleasure palaces; and its time {is coming soon}, and its days will not be prolonged.

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew "ostrich"