It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
The fortress shall cease from Efrayim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Yisra'el,* says the LORD of Armies.
Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.* He answered, *Fallen, fallen is Bavel; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.
Behold, the land of the Kasdim. This people was not. The Ashur founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin.
For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.
For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;
Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.
You shall gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street of it, and shall burn with fire the city, and all the spoil of it every whit, to the LORD your God: and it shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again.
They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her great wealth!' For in one hour is she made desolate.