For the palace will be deserted, the busy city abandoned. The hill and the watchtower will become barren places for ever, the joy of wild donkeys, and a pasture for flocks,
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.
For you have turned the city into a pile of rocks, a fortified city into ruins; the fortress of barbarians is no longer a city; it will never be rebuilt.
They will be killed by the sword , and be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles , until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
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,
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.
The coastland will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah; they will find pasture there. They will lie down in the evening among the houses of Ashkelon, for the Lord their God will return to them and restore their fortunes.
This is the jubilant city that lives in security, that says to herself: I exist, and there is no one else. What a desolation she has become, a place for wild animals to lie down! Everyone who passes by her scoffs and shakes his fist.
After this, he built the outer wall of the city of David from west of Gihon in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate; he brought it round Ophel, and he heightened it considerably. He also placed military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.