The downfall of the Babylonian empire is portrayed not merely as a military defeat, but as an absolute, irreversible erasure. A city that once stood as the bustling, vibrant center of global power is destined to become an eternal wasteland, completely abandoned by humanity. Instead of human inhabitants, the territory of Babylon will be inherited by wild creatures and transformed into a landscape of swamps and stagnant pools of water, a fate common to ruined and sunken regions [מצודת דוד, אברבנאל, שטיינזלץ].
There are differing views regarding the specific wild creatures that will take over this desolate landscape. Some identify them as spiky, water-dwelling animals similar to hedgehogs [רש"י, רד"ק, אברבנאל]. Others suggest they are a type of desert or nocturnal bird, noting that similar creatures are grouped with birds elsewhere in biblical texts [מצודת ציון, שטיינזלץ, שד"ל]. A completely different approach proposes that the description does not refer to an animal at all, but rather stems from a concept of cutting or shortening, serving as a metaphor for the cutting short of life and the total extinction of the city [אבן עזרא].
The thoroughness of this destruction is compared to the act of sweeping away waste. The imagery relies on a rare concept of sweeping with a broom or dustpan, an idea universally agreed upon by commentators [רש"י, מצודת ציון, רד"ק, אבן עזרא]. Interestingly, the exact meaning of this unique action was only clarified for the early Talmudic sages when they heard the maidservant of Rabbi Judah the Prince, known for her pure Hebrew, use a similar expression to ask that the house be swept [רש"י, רד"ק, שד"ל].
In this context, sweeping is not an act of cleaning or purifying. It is a powerful metaphor for total annihilation. God will sweep a broom of disaster over the city. Just as a floor is left completely bare after being swept, Babylon will be emptied of its residents, its wealth, and its honor, until absolutely nothing remains [מצודת דוד, רד"ק, שד"ל]. The devastation will be so complete that the area will become a landscape of thick mud and mire, impossible even to walk upon [אברבנאל].
The precise realization of this vision—the transformation of the glorious Babylonian empire into desolate ruins and wild swamps incapable of ever being rebuilt—serves as profound historical evidence of the prophecy's truth, proving that the word of God stands forever [שד"ל].