And after this he built a wall outside the City of Dawiḏ on the west of Giḥon, in the wadi, and as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate, and it went round Ophel, and he made it exceedingly high. And he put army commanders in all the walled cities of Yehuḏah.
For the city of defence is lonely, a home forsaken and left like a wilderness – there the calf feeds, and there it lies down, and shall consume its branches.
Then I said, “יהוה, until when?” And He answered, “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, and the houses are without a man, and the land is laid waste, a ruin,
“For thus said יהוה, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the sovereigns of Yehuḏah, which are thrown down against the siege mounds and the sword,
lest I strip her naked, and shall set her up as on the day she was born, and shall make her like a wilderness, and shall set her like a dry land, and shall put her to death with thirst.
This is the exultant city that is dwelling in safety, that said in her heart, “I am it, and there is none but me.” How has she become a waste, a place for beasts to lie down! Everyone who passes by her whistles and shakes his fist.
And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Yehuḏah. They shall feed their flocks on it, at evening they lie down in the houses of Ashqelon. For יהוה their Elohim shall visit them and turn back their captivity.
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Yerushalayim shall be trampled underfoot by the nations until the times of the nations are filled.