John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 34:13

"And thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches." — Isaiah 34:13 (ASV)

In her palaces she shall bring forth thorns. He pursues the same subject, for he describes a frightful desolation by which splendid houses and palaces are leveled to the ground or reduced to such a wild state that they are of no use to humans, but produce only briers, thorns, and nettles; this is more disgraceful than if they had been turned into fields and meadows.

In this manner the Lord punishes the insolence of those who built lofty and magnificent houses and costly palaces, so that their memory might be handed down to the most distant posterity. Having banished people, he turns those dwellings into nests of birds and dens of wild beasts, so that, instead of being, as they expected, the trophies of their name and renown, they may stand as monuments of foolish ambition.

Thus, the place of people is largely taken over by beasts, which represent the dispositions of those who built those grand structures. This overthrow of order is also a sad sign of the wrath of God, when the earth, which was created for the use of humankind, sees its natural masters banished and is compelled to accept other inhabitants; for then, undoubtedly, it is cleansed from the defilements with which it was polluted.