Dwelling of Demons, Cage of Unclean Birds Counterfeit court

Isaiah's oracle on Babylon ends with the city emptied of men: "wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there" (Isa 13:21). Edom receives the same sentence (Isa 34:11-15), and Jeremiah adds, "Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons" (Jer 51:37). Nineveh is left to the cormorant and bittern (Zeph 2:14). In Revelation 18:2 the language is defilement language: the city is declared ritually desolate, unfit for holy use, a cage for every unclean bird of Leviticus 11. The scavengers waiting there point ahead to the birds' supper of chapter 19.