The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
Ver. 10. The city of confusion.] Urbs desolanda, destined to desolation: whether it be Babylon, Tyre, Jerusalem, or any other. Mundum intellige in quo nihil nisi vanum, saith Oecolampadius: that is, by this city of vanity - so the Vulgate translateth it - understand the world; according to that of the preacher, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Augustine, in the beginning of that excellent work of his, De Civitate Dei, maketh two opposite cities - the one the city of God, the other the city of the devil; the one a city of verity, the other a city of vanity.