For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; the calves graze there; there they lie down and strip its branches.
I will make it a wasteland; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle, and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to make a defense against the siege ramps and before the sword:
The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars. They shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,” and to the hills, “Fall on us.”
or I will strip her naked and expose her as in the day she was born and make her like a wilderness and turn her into a parched land and kill her with thirst.
For even if they escape destruction, Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents.