What Does Isaiah 13:21 Mean?
But desert creatures will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howlers; ostriches will dwell there, and the hairy ones will leap there.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But 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.THE KEY
The word for these creatures’ dwelling shares its root with the word for the tabernacle: the houses are still inhabited, but their occupants have changed.
THE MEANING
The verse shows a human dwelling filled with wild creatures instead. They lie, dwell, and dance there; the repeated “there” makes the change of occupants unmistakable. A house can remain standing while its human life is gone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An intact house does not prove that its human household still owns the space.
THE ROOT
וְרָבְצוּ
veravtsu
GROWS FROM
רבץ
To crouch, lie down, or settle low.
“lie down there” in this verse is veravtsu. The root names a low, settled posture. The same verb can picture a crouch at a threshold or a shepherd making someone recline; here, wild creatures take that posture in the ruined space.
ALSO GROWS
rovetz: Lies crouching.
רֹבֵץ
In Genesis 4:7, the same root pictures sin crouching at the door, giving the posture a watchful edge as well as the sense of rest.
yarbitzeni: Causes me to recline.
יַרְבִּיצֵנִי
Psalm 23:2 uses the same root for rest in green pastures, placing a shepherded repose beside the wild creatures’ repose among ruined houses.
וְשָׁכְנוּ
veshakhnu
GROWS FROM
שכן
To settle in or dwell.
“dwell” in this verse is veshakhnu. This verb shares its root with מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan), “dwelling place” or “tabernacle,” and שָׁכֵן (shakhen), “neighbor” or “one who lives nearby.” The root keeps the sense of habitation intact as the residents change from human householders to wild creatures.
ALSO GROWS
mishkan: A dwelling place, including the Tabernacle.
מִשְׁכָּן
The same root used for the creatures’ dwelling also forms a word for a dwelling place set apart for God.
shakhen: One who lives nearby.
שָׁכֵן
The root extends from dwelling to the relationship between those who share a place; here, the new residents redefine who occupies the space.
THE PATTERN
When human habitation falls away, the built place does not remain empty; other life takes up the space.
Thorns rise in its palaces, nettles and brambles in its fortresses. It becomes a dwelling for jackals, a courtyard for the ostriches.Flocks shall lie down in her midst, all the beasts of the nations, and the pelican and the porcupine shall lodge in her capitals. Their voice shall sing in the windows, and dry ruin in the thresholds, for he has laid bare the cedar.And he cried out with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great has fallen, has fallen, and has become the place where demons settle, and the holding place of every unclean breath, and the holding place of every unclean and hated bird.THE THREAD
He lays me down in green pastures; he leads me beside resting waters.The verb translated “lie down” comes from the same root in both verses. Psalm 23 places that posture in green pastures; Isaiah places it among ruined houses, so the shared root makes the difference in their surroundings vivid.
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