Isaiah 13:20
20 It shall never [netsach] be inhabited [yashab],
neither shall it be dwelt [shakan] in from
generation [dowr] to generation [dowr]: neither shall the Arabian [`Arabiy] pitch tent ['ahal] there;
neither shall the shepherds [ra`ah] make their
fold [rabats] there. KJV-Interlinear
20 It will never be inhabited or
lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there. NASB
Throughout its history,
Babylon enjoyed great notoriety and beauty and glory insofar as that is
possible for a city of this world.
Even when Babylon was
invaded and defeated several times over, the nation and city was never totally
and completely devastated as is being described in this current verse.
All the way down through
the centuries even into the first century A.D., Babylon was still a center of
trade and prosperity. It did not decline dramatically until well into the dark
ages.
However, this verse
describes a region that will be totally devastated and virtually empty of
inhabitants for many generations following its final destruction.
The term Arab, is the
description typically attributed to the descendants of Ishmael, who were a
nomadic people that lived in tents and migrated from area to area, never really
settling down permanently in one place.
And so Babylon is
described as a region so desolate, so worthless, so destroyed that even nomadic
people and sheperds will not settle there even on a temporary basis. This will
be an area that will be empty of permanent and even temporary inhabitants.
And of course we
understand that this will occur after the second advent of Christ.
