John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 13:20

"It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there." — Isaiah 13:20 (ASV)

It shall never be inhabited any more. By the verb תשב (thesheb), shall sit, he means continuance, as if he had said, “There is no hope of restoring Babylon.” All these expressions have precisely the same aim: that the Babylonians will be destroyed with such a destruction that their ruin will be perpetual.

The picture is still further heightened by adding that the desolation will be so great that in that place neither will the Arabians pitch their tents, nor the shepherds their folds. That place must have been remarkably forsaken and uncultivated when it was disregarded by those roving tribes, for the Arabians were a wandering and unsettled nation and had no fixed abode.

Having left their native country because it was barren and is therefore called Arabia Deserta (for it is of that country that we speak), they devoted themselves to feeding flocks and to hunting, and wandered without any fixed residence. For this reason, the Greeks also called them σκηνήται (skenetai), dwellers in tents.

Now, the country around Babylon was exceedingly fertile before that calamity, which made this change all the more astonishing and almost miraculous, either because the place lost its former fertility or because the constant slaughter made all people abhor the sight of it. Undoubtedly, the Prophet means that not only will the buildings be torn down, but the very soil will be accursed.