Isaiah 14:23-25

Amplified Bible

²³“I will also make Babylon a possession of the hedgehog and of ^[a]swamps of water, and I will sweep it away with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of hosts.

Judgment on Assyria

²⁴The Lord of hosts has sworn [an oath], saying, “Just as I have intended, so it has certainly happened, and just as I have planned, so it will stand— ²⁵to break the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains I will trample him underfoot. Then the Assyrian’s ^[b]yoke will be removed from them (the people of Judah) and his burden removed from their shoulder.

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Footnotes

Isaiah 14:23 The city of Babylon was in the middle of a very fertile area, and it would have seemed reasonable to suppose that, regardless of what happened to the population, the region would always furnish pasturage for flocks. But Isaiah said it would become the possession of wild animals and would be covered with “swamps of water.” This is how that prophecy was literally fulfilled: after Babylon was taken, the whole area around the city was put under water from neglect of the canals and dikes of the Euphrates River. It became stagnant “swamps of water” among ruins haunted by wild animals, proclaiming to any who might see it that it had happened just as the Lord intended (Is 14:24).
Isaiah 14:25 The prophecy against Assyria had actually by this time already been fulfilled, but Isaiah attached it to the as yet unfulfilled prophecy against Babylon as a pledge or guarantee of the fulfillment of the latter.