Isaiah 34:13
Good News Translation
Thorns and thistles will grow up in all the palaces and walled towns, and jackals and owls will live in them.

New Revised Standard Version
Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches.

Contemporary English Version
Its palaces and fortresses will be covered with thorns; only wolves and ostriches will make their home there.

New American Bible
Its castles shall be overgrown with thorns, its fortresses with thistles and briers. It shall become an abode for jackals, a haunt for ostriches.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And thorns and nettles shall grow up in its houses, and the thistle in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be the habitation of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

And thorns and nettles shall grow up in its houses, and the thistle in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be the habitation of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches.

thorns

Isaiah 32:13,14 Upon the land of my people shall thorns and briers come up: how much more upon all the houses of joy, of the city that rejoiced? . . .

Hosea 9:6 For behold they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them together, Memphis shall bury them: nettles shall inherit their beloved silver, the bur shall be in their tabernacles.

Zephaniah 2:9 Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrha, the dryness of thorns, and heaps of salt, and a desert even for ever: the remnant of my people shall make a spoil of them, and the residue of my nation shall possess them.

an habitation

Isaiah 13:21,22 But wild beasts shall rest there, and their houses shall be filled with serpents, and ostriches shall dwell there, and the hairy ones shall dance there: . . .

Isaiah 35:7 And that which was dry land, shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the dens where dragons dwelt before, shall rise up the verdure of the reed and the bulrush.

Jeremiah 9:11 And I will make Jerusalem to be heaps of sand, and dens of dragons: and I will make the cities of Juda desolate, for want of an inhabitant.

Jeremiah 10:22 Behold the sound of a noise cometh, a great commotion out of the land of the north: to make the cities of Juda a desert, and a dwelling for dragons.

Jeremiah 49:33 And Asor shall be a habitation for dragons, desolate for ever: no man shall abide there, nor son of man inhabit it.

Jeremiah 50:39,40 Therefore shall dragons dwell there with the fig fauns: and ostriches shall dwell therein, and it shall be no more inhabited for ever, neither shall it be built up from generation to generation. . . .

Jeremiah 51:37 And Babylon shall be reduced to heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, because there is no inhabitant.

Malachi 1:3 But have hated Esau? and I have made his mountains a wilderness, and given his inheritance to the dragons of the desert.

Revelation 18:2,20-24 And he cried out with a strong voice, saying: Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen: and is become the habitation of devils and the hold of every unclean spirit and the hold of every unclean and hateful bird: . . .

owls.

Context
God's Judgments on the Nations
12The nobles thereof shall not be there: they shall call rather upon the king, and all the princes thereof shall be nothing. 13And thorns and nettles shall grow up in its houses, and the thistle in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be the habitation of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches.14And demons and monsters shall meet, and the hairy ones shall cry out one to another, there hath the lamia lain down, and found rest for herself.…
Cross References
Revelation 18:2
And he cried out with a strong voice, saying: Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen: and is become the habitation of devils and the hold of every unclean spirit and the hold of every unclean and hateful bird:

Psalm 44:19
And our heart hath not turned back: neither hast thou turned aside our steps from thy way.

Isaiah 13:22
And owls shall answer one another there, in the houses thereof, and sirens in the temples of pleasure.

Isaiah 25:2
For thou hast reduced the city to a heap, the strong city to ruin, the house of strangers, to be no city, and to be no more built up for ever.

Isaiah 32:13
Upon the land of my people shall thorns and briers come up: how much more upon all the houses of joy, of the city that rejoiced?

Isaiah 32:14
For the house is forsaken, the multitude of the city is left, darkness and obscurity are come upon its dens for ever. A joy of wild asses, the pastures of flocks.

Isaiah 35:7
And that which was dry land, shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the dens where dragons dwelt before, shall rise up the verdure of the reed and the bulrush.

Jeremiah 9:11
And I will make Jerusalem to be heaps of sand, and dens of dragons: and I will make the cities of Juda desolate, for want of an inhabitant.

Jeremiah 10:22
Behold the sound of a noise cometh, a great commotion out of the land of the north: to make the cities of Juda a desert, and a dwelling for dragons.

Lamentations 4:3
Ghimel. Even the sea monsters have drawn out the breast, they have given suck to their young: the daughter of my people is cruel, like the ostrich in the desert.

Isaiah 34:12
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