'Desolation' in the Bible

‘Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.

All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.

So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation until this day.

because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,” declares the Lord.

to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.

“From want and famine they are gauntWho gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,

Your land is desolate,Your cities are burned with fire,Your fields—strangers are devouring them in your presence;It is desolation, as overthrown by strangers.

Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,Cruel, with fury and burning anger,To make the land a desolation;And He will exterminate its sinners from it.

In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken places in the forest,Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;And the land will be a desolation.

Desolation is left in the cityAnd the gate is battered to ruins.

But pelican and hedgehog will possess it,And owl and raven will dwell in it;And He will stretch over it the line of desolationAnd the plumb line of emptiness.

Your holy cities have become a wilderness,Zion has become a wilderness,Jerusalem a desolation.

For thus says the Lord,“The whole land shall be a desolation,Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.

“Be warned, O Jerusalem,Or I shall be alienated from you,And make you a desolation,A land not inhabited.”

“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,A haunt of jackals;And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

The sound of a report! Behold, it comes—A great commotion out of the land of the north—To make the cities of JudahA desolation, a haunt of jackals.

“It has been made a desolation,Desolate, it mourns before Me;The whole land has been made desolate,Because no man lays it to heart.

To make their land a desolation,An object of perpetual hissing;Everyone who passes by it will be astonishedAnd shake his head.

I will also make this city a desolation and an object of hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its disasters.

But if you will not obey these words, I swear by Myself,” declares the Lord, “that this house will become a desolation.”’”

behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

‘Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the Lord, ‘for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.

Fields will be bought in this land of which you say, “It is a desolation, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.”

Behold, I am going to command,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring them back to this city; and they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.’”

Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become a ruin and a desolation as it is this day.

“Make your baggage ready for exile,O daughter dwelling in Egypt,For Memphis will become a desolation;It will even be burned down and bereft of inhabitants.

“Give wings to Moab,For she will flee away;And her cities will become a desolation,Without inhabitants in them.

“Hazor will become a haunt of jackals,A desolation forever;No one will live there,Nor will a son of man reside in it.”

So the land quakes and writhes,For the purposes of the Lord against Babylon stand,To make the land of BabylonA desolation without inhabitants.

and say, ‘You, O Lord, have promised concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be nothing dwelling in it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.’

Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations which surround you, in the sight of all who pass by.

The inhabited cities will be laid waste and the land will be a desolation. So you will know that I am the Lord.”’”

‘You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,The cup of horror and desolation,The cup of your sister Samaria.

The land of Egypt will become a desolation and waste. Then they will know that I am the Lord.Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine, and I have made it,’

therefore, behold, I am against you and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene and even to the border of Ethiopia.

So I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated lands. And her cities, in the midst of cities that are laid waste, will be desolate forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the lands.”

“When I make the land of Egypt a desolation,And the land is destitute of that which filled it,When I smite all those who live in it,Then they shall know that I am the Lord.

I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and the pride of her power will cease; and the mountains of Israel will be desolate so that no one will pass through.

Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I make the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations which they have committed.”’

and say to it, ‘Thus says the Lord God,“Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir,And I will stretch out My hand against youAnd make you a desolation and a waste.

“I will lay waste your citiesAnd you will become a desolation.Then you will know that I am the Lord.

I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation and I will cut off from it the one who passes through and returns.

I will make you an everlasting desolation and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Thus says the Lord God, “As all the earth rejoices, I will make you a desolation.

As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You will be a desolation, O Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”’

The desolate land will be cultivated instead of being a desolation in the sight of everyone who passes by.

Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation.

From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.

Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke;Among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure.

A day of wrath is that day,A day of trouble and distress,A day of destruction and desolation,A day of darkness and gloom,A day of clouds and thick darkness,

For Gaza will be abandonedAnd Ashkelon a desolation;Ashdod will be driven out at noonAnd Ekron will be uprooted.

“Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts,The God of Israel,“Surely Moab will be like SodomAnd the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah—A place possessed by nettles and salt pits,And a perpetual desolation.The remnant of My people will plunder themAnd the remainder of My nation will inherit them.”

And He will stretch out His hand against the northAnd destroy Assyria,And He will make Nineveh a desolation,Parched like the wilderness.

Flocks will lie down in her midst,All beasts which range in herds;Both the pelican and the hedgehogWill lodge in the tops of her pillars;Birds will sing in the window,Desolation will be on the threshold;For He has laid bare the cedar work.

This is the exultant cityWhich dwells securely,Who says in her heart,“I am, and there is no one besides me.”How she has become a desolation,A resting place for beasts!Everyone who passes by her will hissAnd wave his hand in contempt.

but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.”

“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),

“But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near.