Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation we are in: Jerusalem is desolate and its gates have been burnt. Come! Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a disgrace.”
For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “As My anger and My fury were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you, if you will enter Egypt. You will be an execration, a horror, a curse, and a disgrace, and you will never see this place again.”
Jerusalem has greatly sinned— therefore, she has become niddah . All who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness. She herself groans, and turns away.
before your own wickedness was exposed? Now you have become an object of scorn for the daughters of Aram and all that surround her, for the daughters of the Philistines, for all around who despise you.
You have become guilty in your blood that you have spilled, and are defiled by your idols that you have made. So you have brought your days near, and have come up to your years. Therefore I have made you a disgrace to the nations and a mockery to all the lands.
I will make the land a desolation and a horror. The pride of her power will cease. The mountains of Israel will be desolate, so that no one will pass through.’
In all your dwellings the cities will be desolate. The high places will be deserted. Your altars will be laid waste and made desolate, your idols broken and destroyed, your sun pillars cut down and your works blotted out.
Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, let Your anger and Your fury turn away, please, from Jerusalem, Your city, Your holy mountain. Because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become an object of scorn to all those around us.
Therefore, because of you Zion will become a plowed field. Yes, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the Temple Mount will become a high place in a forest.