The fortified city is isolated. The homestead is left deserted, abandoned like the desert. Calves will graze there. They will lie down. They will feed on the branches.
When that day comes, the fortified cities which other people abandoned because of the Israelites will be like abandoned woods and undergrowth. So it will become a wasteland.
Then you will ask yourself, “Who has fathered these ⌞children⌟ for me? I was childless and unable to have children. I was exiled and rejected. Who raised these ⌞children for me⌟? I was left alone. Where have they come from?”
And you will no longer be able to go to all the hills which used to be cultivated because they will be filled with briars and thorns. It will be a place for turning oxen loose and letting sheep run.”
“Micah from Moresheth prophesied at the time of Judah’s King Hezekiah and said to all the people of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies says: Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of rubble, and the temple mountain will become a worship site covered with trees.’
“The roads to Zion are deserted. No one comes to the annual festivals. No one passes through any of its gates. Its priests are groaning. Its young women are made to suffer. Zion is bitter.
“ ‘Mountains of Israel, listen to the Almighty Lord’s word. This is what the Almighty Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, and to the empty ruins and abandoned cities that have become prey and are mocked by the rest of the surrounding nations:
Because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of rubble, and the temple mountain will become a worship site covered with trees.