34 Bible Verses about Empty Cities

Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel; they left the city open and pursued after Israel.

A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has gone out from his place to make your land as a horror, your cities will go to ruin {without} inhabitant.

And I will make Jerusalem as heaps [of ruins], a lair of jackals, and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation, {without inhabitants}.

Look, I [am] going to command,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and I will bring them back to this city, and they will fight against it, and they will capture it, and they will burn it with fire, and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation {without} an inhabitant.'"

Why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh, {saying}, 'This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be in ruins, {without} inhabitant'?" And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the temple of Yahweh.

"Thus says Yahweh: 'Again will be heard in this place, [of] which you [are] saying, "It [is] a waste, {without} people and {without} animals," in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, {without} people and {without} inhabitants and {without} animals,

Then I said, "Until when, Lord?" And he said, "Until [the] cities lie wasted without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is ruined [and] a waste,

On that day, {its fortified cities} will be like the {abandonment of the wooded place and the summit}, which they deserted because of the children of Israel; and there will be desolation.

For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah, "You [are like] Gilead to me, [like] the head of the Lebanon. {Surely} I will make you a desert, [like] cities [that] are not inhabited.

The cities of Aroer will be deserted; they will be for the flocks, and they will lie down and {no one will frighten} [them].

Give salt for Moab, for certainly she will go to ruin, and her towns will become as a desolation, {without} an inhabitant in them.

It will not be inhabited forever, and it will not be dwelled in {forever}; and no Arab will pitch a tent there, and shepherds will not allow [their flocks] to lie down there.

For a nation will come up against her from [the] north. It will make her land as a horror, and an inhabitant will not be in her. From humans to animals they [all] will wander [off]. They will go [away].

Because of the anger of Yahweh she will not be inhabited, but she will be a wasteland, all of her. Everyone [who] passes by Babylon will be appalled and will hiss because of all her wounds.

As [when] God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors," {declares} Yahweh, "no one will live there, and [the] son of humankind will not dwell as an alien in her.

And the land quakes and writhes, for the plans of Yahweh against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon as a horror, {without} inhabitant.

And Babylon will become as a heap of stones, a lair of jackals, [an object of] horror, and [an object of] hissing, {without} inhabitants.

{Therefore} desert creatures will live [there] with jackals, and daughters of ostriches will inhabit her. And she will not be inhabited again {forever}, and she will not be dwelt in {for all generations}.

And you must say, 'Yahweh, you yourself spoke against this place, to destroy it, so that [there will] not be in it [anything] living, from humankind to animals, for it will be {an everlasting desolation}.'

Her cities have become as an [object of] horror, a dry land and a wilderness, a land in which no person lives, nor does a son of humankind pass through it.

How [the] city of praise has not been abandoned! The city of my joy!

How desolate the city sits [that] was full of people! She has become like a widow, [once] great among the nations! Like a woman of nobility in the provinces, she has become a forced laborer.

For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "When I make you a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited, when bringing up over you the deep, the {great surging waters} will cover you.

From the sound of a horseman and {an archer} every town flees, they enter in the thickets and among the rocks they climb. Every town [is] forsaken, and there is no person [who] lives in them.

For [the] fortified city [is] solitary, a settlement deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; [the] calf grazes there, lies down there and destroys its branches.

For [the] palace will be forsaken, [the] {crowded city} deserted; [the] hill and [the] watchtower will become a cave forever, [the] joy of wild asses, a pasture {for} flocks.

And I will destroy the walls of Tyre, and they will demolish its towers, and I will scrape away its earthen dirt from it, and I will make it into {a bare rock}.

And I will make you into {a bare rock}, a place for [the] spreading out of dragnets. You will not be built again, for I, Yahweh, I have spoken," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

And I will bring you down with [those who are] going down to the grave, {an ancient people}, and I will cause you to dwell in the world of [the] depths, in the ruins from of old with [those who are] going down to [the] grave, so that you will not be inhabited and {have a place} in [the] land of [the] living.

{An everlasting desolation} I will make you, and your cities will not return, and you will know that I [am] Yahweh.

[The] young lions have roared against him, they have {raised} their voices. And they have made his land as horror; his cities are destroyed, {without} an inhabitant.

For Gaza will be abandoned, and Ashkelon as a desolation. [As for] Ashdod, at noon they will drive her away, and Ekron shall be uprooted.

"I have cut off nations; their strongholds are deserted. I have laid waste their streets, so that none pass through. Their cities have been destroyed [and are] without a man, without an inhabitant.

Ashkelon will see and will be afraid, and Gaza will writhe exceedingly, and Ekron [also], because its hope is ruined. And the king from Gaza will perish, and Ashkelon will not be inhabited.