Doleful creatures

Doleful creatures appears only in Isaiah 13:21 (KJV), in the oracle of judgment against Babylon: "But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures." The underlying Hebrew word (ʾōḥîm, literally "shrieks" or "howlers") likely refers to owls, jackals, or other creatures whose calls were associated with desolation and the uninhabited wilderness. Modern translations render the phrase variously as "howling creatures," "owls," or "hyenas."

This vocabulary of desolation—wild animals inhabiting the ruins of once-great cities—is a standard prophetic motif used across multiple oracles to describe divine judgment reduced to wilderness (Isa. 34:13–15; Jer. 50:39; Zeph. 2:14). The reversal of the inhabited city into a haunt of nocturnal animals and desert creatures signifies not merely political defeat but the thoroughgoing removal of human civilization as a consequence of divine displeasure.