Later text
And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.
Intertextuality Pair
Allusion
Later text
And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.
Earlier text
Isaiah 13:21BSB
But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.
Isaiah 13:21 describes the predicted desolation of Babylon: "desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about." The Hebrew terms (siyyim, ochim, se'irim) have demonic overtones — se'irim can mean "hairy ones" or "demons." Revelation 18:2 echoes this language: "She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast." John interprets Isaiah's prediction through its demonic connotations, making explicit what was implicit in the Hebrew. The allusion demonstrates that the fall of eschatological Babylon fulfills the pattern established in Isaiah's oracle against historical Babylon — the proud city becomes a demon-haunted wasteland.