For even if they flee from devastation, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. Thistles will take possession of their precious silver; thorns will invade their tents.
Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns; her fortified cities, with thistles and briars. She will become a dwelling for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed; thorns and thistles will grow over their altars. They will say to the mountains, ‘Cover us! ’ and to the hills, ‘Fall on us! ’
Then I said, ‘Until when, Lord? ’ And he replied: Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants, houses are without people, the land is ruined and desolate,
I will make it a wasteland. It will not be pruned or weeded; thorns and briars will grow up. I will also give orders to the clouds that rain should not fall on it.
For the fortified city will be desolate, pastures deserted and abandoned like a wilderness. Calves will graze there, and there they will spread out and strip its branches.
Instead of the thorn bush, a cypress will come up, and instead of the briar, a myrtle will come up; this will stand as a monument for the Lord, an everlasting sign that will not be destroyed.
For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah’s kings, the ones torn down for defence against the assault ramps and the sword:
Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her as she was on the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and like a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.