I will completely destroy this city. People will make fun of it and shake their heads when they pass by. They will be shocked when they see how the city was destroyed.
If the Temple is destroyed, everyone who passes by will be shocked. They will make fun of you and ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this terrible thing to this land and this Temple?’
So Judah’s country will become an empty desert. People will not stop making fun of it. They will shake their heads as they pass by; they will be shocked at how the country was destroyed.
I served this wine to the people of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and the kings and officers of Judah, so they would become a ruin. Then people would be shocked and would insult them and speak evil of them. And so it has been to this day.
The Lord says, “I swear by my own name that the city of Bozrah will become a pile of ruins! People will be shocked by what happened there. They will insult that city and speak evil of it. And all the towns around it will become ruins forever.”
Because of the Lord’s anger, no one will live there. She will be completely empty. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be shocked. They will shake their heads when they see all her injuries.
This is because you obey the laws of King Omri and do all the things that Ahab’s family does; you follow their advice. So I will let you be destroyed. The people in your city will be laughed at, and other nations will make fun of you.
This is the happy and safe city that thinks there is no one else as strong as it is. But what a ruin it will be, a place where wild animals live. All those who pass by will make fun and shake their fists.
Your children who will come after you, as well as foreigners from faraway lands, will see the disasters that come to this land and the diseases the Lord will send on it. They will say,