Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks;
Now after this he built a wall outside the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate, and around Ophel, and raised it up to a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fortified cities of Judah.
Yet the fortified city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be completely desolate,
And it shall come to pass in that day, that in every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines, and valued at a thousand silver coins, it shall even be for briers and thorns.
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;
And the king of Babylon struck them down, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was taken away captive out of his own land.
So that I do not strip her naked, and leave her as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house like the high places of the forest.
This is the rejoicing city that dwelt without a care, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none besides me: how she has become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one who passes by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.
And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed upon it: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the LORD their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.