The city that was once mighty you’ve turned into a heap of rubble; the fortified city now lies in ruins. The foreigner’s fortress is no more and will never be rebuilt.
Look, there is news to report! There’s a roar and a rumble coming from the north, coming to make the cities of Judah a rubble and turn it into a den of jackals.
The Lord has swallowed up without mercy all the homes of Jacob’s descendants. In his fury, he tore down the fortresses of Daughter Judah. He threw to the ground and brought disgrace to the kingdom of Judah and her leaders.
“In the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, the prophet Micah of Moresheth prophesied to all the people of Judah, ‘Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies, declares: “ ‘Zion will be plowed under like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the Temple Mount will be covered with overgrowth.’
God, won’t you do something? Barbarians have invaded your inheritance. Your temple of holiness has been violated, and Jerusalem has been left in ruins.
Why have you prophesied in Yahweh’s name, ‘This temple will become a pile of ruins like Shiloh, and Jerusalem become an uninhabited ruin?’ ” Then a mob formed and ganged up against Jeremiah in the temple court of Yahweh.
I started with Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. Their kings and leaders were removed from power in disgrace and made an object of horror, derision, and a curse, as they are today.
I confirm the word of my servants and fulfill the prophecies of my messengers. I say to Jerusalem, ‘Many people will live in you again,’ and to the cities of Judah, ‘I will raise up your ruins; you will be rebuilt!’
He shouted out with a thunderous voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a demonic dwelling place, a prison for every unclean spirit, unclean bird, and every unclean, detestable beast.
Yet you have crushed us, leaving us in this wilderness place of misery and desperation. With nowhere else to turn, death’s dark door seems to be the only way out.
Listen! I, Yahweh, declare that I am about to summon all the armies of the northern kingdoms. Their kings will come and set up their thrones at the gates of Jerusalem. They will attack its walls and all the other cities of Judah.
“Yahweh, God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies, says this: You have seen with your own eyes all the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. Look at them; now they are in ruins and left uninhabited.
The empty roads to Zion mourn, for no one travels to her sacred feasts anymore. The singing maidens suffer, and the priests can only groan. The city gates stand empty, and Zion can only moan.
“And when you prophesy all these words to that people, and they ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh decreed all this great evil against us? What is the wrong and the sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?’