They told me, “The remnant who are left from the exile are there in the province, but they are having a great deal of trouble and feel humiliated. Jerusalem's walls have been knocked over, and its gates burned down.”
So I rode in the dark through the Valley Gate toward the Spring of the Serpent and the Refuse Gate, and I inspected Jerusalem's walls that had been knocked over and the gates that had been burned down.
but I replied to the king, “Long live the king! How can I help being sad? The city where my forefathers are buried is in ruins, and its gates have been burned down.”
I am sending the Assyrians against a nation that has given up on its God, against a people that make me angry. I order the Assyrians to loot them, to take their possessions, and to trample them down like mud in the street.
They will rebuild the old ruins; they will restore places abandoned long ago; they will restore towns that were destroyed, places left desolate for generation after generation.
His forces will occupy and defile the Temple fortress. They will put a stop to the continual service, and set up a form of idolatry that causes devastation.
He will confirm the agreement with many people for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifices and offerings. The idolatry that causes devastation will be supported until the end when the same fate is poured out on the one who devastates.”
He explained to them, “Doesn't Scripture say, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of thieves!”
They will be killed by the sword and taken away as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trodden down by the foreign nations until their time is fulfilled.
When they had brought the kings to Joshua, he summoned all the fighting men, and said to the commanders who had gone with him, “Come here, and put your feet on the necks of these kings.” So they came over and put their feet on their necks.
Don't measure the court outside the Temple, leave that, because it has been handed over to the nations. They will trample down the holy city for forty-two months.