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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 18:2, a home for demons and every unclean bird
Fallen Babylon becomes a lair of demons, unclean birds and beasts, as Isaiah foretold for ruined Babylon and Edom, in words the Greek translation renders as demons.
Revelation 18:2, in every translation this tool compares.
An abandoned mall taken over by pigeons and stray dogs tells you the money has gone. Isaiah foretold that ruined Babylon would be home to wild beasts and owls, with wild goats dancing there. He said the same of Edom. The Greek translation calls some of those creatures demons. John says fallen Babylon has become a den of demons, where every foul spirit, bird and beast lives.
A ruined city full of demons, birds and beasts. The Greek of Isaiah 13:21 has wild beasts (theria) resting there and demons (daimonia) dancing. Isaiah 34:14 has demons (daimonia) meeting satyrs, and 34:11 birds dwelling. Revelation 18:2 has a dwelling of demons (daimonion) and a haunt of every unclean bird and beast (theriou).
The Hebrew of Isaiah 13:21 names desert creatures, owls and goat-like beings (seirim); the Greek translation renders some of them as demons and sirens. John follows that Greek sense. He adds unclean spirits and calls every creature unclean, which Beale ties to Babylon's idolatry. Isaiah describes a deserted ruin. Beale reads John's scene as the truth behind Babylon's beauty.
Beale says the final stripping of Babylon's luxury shows her skeleton, inhabited by demonic creatures. What guided her all along is revealed. The desert of 17:3 becomes her own condition.
Not a nature report. The sources read the creatures as signs of complete ruin and of the demonic power behind Babylon.
Beale says the desolation most resembles Isaiah's pictures of the judgment of Babylon and Edom (Isaiah 13:21; 34:11, 14), viewed as types of universal Babylon's judgment. He sets out the Greek: wild beasts rest there, demons dance (Isaiah 13:21-22); birds and ravens dwell there (34:11, 13-14). Jewish interpreters read these creatures as demons (the Aramaic paraphrase of Isaiah 13:21; Midrash Rabbah on Leviticus). He adds Baruch 4:35, Babylon inhabited by demons, and Jeremiah 50:39 and 51:37, and notes that Fekkes sees these texts as the combined inspiration. Isaiah 34 was used earlier in 14:11. The word for haunt (phylake) means a place of watching, as in Daniel 4:25 in the old Greek. Keener cites Isaiah 34:9-15 and Jeremiah 50:13; 51:29, 37. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible notes that the Greek translation calls some creatures demons in Isaiah 34:14 and 13:21. The ESV Study Bible cites Isaiah 13:21-22, and the CSB Study Bible's cross-references Isaiah 13:20-22. The Hebrew of Isaiah 13:21 has tsiyim and seirim, desert creatures and goat-like beings. The grade is drawn here: the creatures and the demons follow Isaiah's Greek.
The sources lean on different prophets. Beale gives Isaiah 13 and 34 the closest wording. Keener and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible add Jeremiah's oracles against Babylon (50:13; 51:29, 37). The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cites Isaiah 13:19-22 and Jeremiah 51:37. They agree on the meaning.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 18:2
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 18:2
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 18:2
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 18:1-3
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 18:2
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 18:2
- Septuagint, Isaiah 13:21 and 34:14, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Hebrew text of Isaiah 13:21, Miqra according to the Masorah (Sefaria)
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 18:2
