The dirge of fallen Babylon in verse two, was an extension of the same vision in chapter 14:8, and was substantially the same lamentation over the fall of the ancient Babylon recorded in Isaiah 21:9 : “ Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.” The Babylon of this chapter was symbolic of Jerusalem, and the voice of verse two was crying a threnody--a dirge of lamentation--on the day of doom for the once faithful but apostate city.
The latter part of the verse describes Jerusalem as the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. The severance of all commercial affiliations by the siege of Jerusalem and the devastation of Judea, had reduced the city to a haunt, symbolized by the demoniac habitation of evil spirts, devils and vultures. The visions of the overthrow of Tyre and Babylon in the Old Testament were combined in these same symbols.