For the palace will be abandoned; the bustling city will be deserted; the citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, a delight of wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks,
Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no more be called tender and delicate.
Then I said, “Adonai, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, houses are without people, and the land is utterly desolate.
Their widows will increase before Me more than the sand of the seas, I will bring a destroyer at noonday against the mother of a young man. Suddenly I will bring down on her anguish and terrors.
How lonely sits the city, once so full of people! She who was once great among the nations has become like a widow. The princess among the provinces has become a forced laborer.
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground in silence. They threw dust on their heads and girded themselves with sackcloth. The maidens of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
Adonai resolved to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line. He did not withdraw His hand from destroying. He caused rampart and wall to lament— together they languished away.
Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones. They will cast aside their robes. They will take off their richly woven garments; they will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground. They will tremble every moment and be appalled at you.
And they will smash you to the ground—you and your children within you. And they won’t leave within you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”