For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the siege mounds, and by the sword;
Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;
Behold the siege mounds, they have come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what you have spoken has come to pass; and, behold, you see it.
For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be punished; she is full of oppression in the midst of her.
The Lord has cast off his altar, he has abhorred his sanctuary, he has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.
At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up a siege mound, and to build a wall.
He shall slay with the sword your daughters in the field: and he shall set up a siege wall against you, and cast a mound against you, and lift up a large shield against you.
And lay siege against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and place battering rams against it round about.
And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every stronghold; for they shall heap up earth, and take it.
Only the trees which you know will not be trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.