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,
Your land is laid waste, your cities are burned with fire, strangers devour your land in your presence. And it is laid waste, as overthrown by strangers.
For thus said יהוה to the house of the sovereign of Yehuḏah, “You are like Gil‛aḏ to Me, the head of Leḇanon. But I shall make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
“A lion has come up from his bush, and the destroyer of nations is on his way. He has set out from his place to make your land a ruin. Your cities are laid waste, without inhabitant.
“Thus said יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, ‘You yourselves have seen all the evil that I have brought on Yerushalayim and on all the cities of Yehuḏah. And see, this day they are a ruin, and no one dwells in them,
“In all your dwelling places the cities shall be destroyed and the high places deserted, so that your slaughter-places are broken and bear their punishment. And your idols shall be smashed and made to cease, and your sun-pillars cut down, and your works blotted out.
Then I heard a certain set-apart one speaking. And another set-apart one said to that certain one who was speaking, “Till when is the vision, concerning that which is continual, and the transgression that lays waste, to make both the set-apart place and the host to be trampled under foot?”
“In that day one shall lift up a proverb against you, and he shall lament with a bitter lamentation, and shall say, ‘We have been utterly ravaged! He changes the inheritance of my people. How He removes it from me! He apportions our fields to the backslider.’ ”
“And you shall be left with few men, although you had become as numerous as the stars of the heavens, because you did not obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim.
“And it shall be, that as יהוה rejoiced over you to do you good and increase you, so יהוה does rejoice over you to destroy you and lay you waste. And you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.