I was always taught that prophecies about the utter destruction of Babylon, that was afterwards never to be inhabited again, were already fulfilled, when the Medes and Persians took the city.

However, I often wondered about that.

Both Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied of this permanent destruction of Babylon:

Isaiah 13:19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

  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 the shepherds make their fold there.

Isaiah said it would be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Does that mean totally consumed by fire without survivors?

Isaiah also said that it would never be inhabited, or dwelt in, from generation to generation.

Did that already happen?

Jeremiah 50:35 A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

 39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

 40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.

 

Jeremiah said nearly the same thing as Isaiah, that it would be as when overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Does that mean totally consumed by fire without survivors?

Jeremiah also said that it would never be dwelt in from generation to generation, and no more inhabited for ever.

Did that already happen?

Jeremiah 51:37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.

Jeremiah said that it would become without inhabitant.

But even after the Medes and Persians took the city, there were people dwelling there.

Babylon even had kings of the Medes and Persians living, or working there:

Ezra 5:13 But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon the same king Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God.

Cyrus, the king, apparently reigned out of Babylon - difficult to do if no one was still living there.

Ezra 5:17 Now therefore, if it seem good to the king, let there be search made in the king’s treasure house, which is there at Babylon, whether it be so, that a decree was made of Cyrus the king to build this house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter.

The treasure house of Cyrus the king was in Babylon.

Ezra 6:1 Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.

Even Darius had the search made in the house of rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.

Ezra 8:1 These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king.

Even as late as the reign of Artaxerxes, the Jews were still living in Babylon, and some went from there, with Ezra, back to Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 13:6 But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem: for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon came I unto the king, and after certain days obtained I leave of the king:

Artaxerxes, even as late as 32nd year of his reign, was called the king of Babylon.

So, when the Medes and Persians took Babylon, it was not burned up like Sodom and Gomorrah at that time, will that still happen?

Yes, when the LORD destroys Mystery, Babylon.

That will not be the old testament Babylon, but a new testament mystery.

Old testament Babylon was not burned up in its overthrow, and was still inhabited for quite a number of years after it was taken.

Yes, today it is no longer inhabited, but not as a result of a Sodom and Gomorrah type overthrow.

Peter prophesied of a future Sodom and Gomorrah type overthrow:

II Peter 2:6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

Apparently, that type of overthrow hasn't happened since Genesis 19, as an example like Sodom and Gomorrah were.

So, if that is still to happen to Mystery, Babylon, then will the people of Mystery, Babylon, be living like they did in Sodom and Gomorrah? 

If so, could that be another clue, to help identify this Mystery, Babylon?