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;
Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Bavel; sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Kasdim: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate.
Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.
How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces is become tributary!
The ways of Tziyon do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly; all her gates are desolate, her Kohanim do sigh: her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
The elders of the daughter of Tziyon sit on the ground, they keep silence; They have cast up dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: The virgins of Yerushalayim hang down their heads to the ground.
The LORD has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Tziyon; He has stretched out the line, he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; He has made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.
Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit on the ground, and shall tremble every moment, and be astonished at you.
and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn't know the time of your visitation.*