Isaiah 13:20

Never be inhabited. When Babylon was finally in ruins it became a forsaken city. A century after Isaiah, Jeremiah uttered a similar prediction (Jer. 51:37).

The Arabian. The term “Arabian” is employed as a general designation for the nomadic tribes of Bedouins that wander to and fro in the desert east of Palestine.

Pitch tent. Since the desolation of Babylon in ancient times (see on v. 19) the site has not been inhabited. Visitors of past generations sometimes reported that Bedouins of that vicinity avoided the ruins out of superstitious horror of the place. This may indeed have been true at some time in the past, but the reason the Bedouins give today is simply that the ancient ruins do not provide a suitable place for human habitation. As in millenniums past, “the Arabian” does not “pitch his tent there.”

Nevertheless, a Bedouin settlement on the site of ancient Babylon would not invalidate Isaiah’s prediction. The prophet was not so much concerned with its impregnable walls and stately palaces as with its pagan religion, heathen culture, and military might. His graphic picture of the city as an abandoned ruin emphatically declares that the proud empire of his day would vanish from the earth. The centuries testify to the accuracy of Isaiah’s prediction, for nothing remains of that ancient civilization but its ruins. See also on Eze. 26:14.