Then her gates will lament and mourn;
deserted, she will sit on the ground.

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For the fortified city will be deserted,
pastures abandoned and forsaken like a wilderness.
Calves will graze there,
and there they will spread out and strip its branches.

The highways are deserted;
travel has ceased.
An agreement has been broken,
cities despised,
and human life disregarded.

For the Lord has called you,
like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit,
a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,”
says your God.

“I deserted you for a brief moment,
but I will take you back with great compassion.

Instead of your being deserted and hated,
with no one passing through,
I will make you an object of eternal pride,
a joy from age to age.

You will no longer be called Deserted,
and your land will not be called Desolate;
instead, you will be called My Delight is in Her,
and your land Married;
for the Lord delights in you,
and your land will be married.

And they will be called the Holy People,
the Lord’s Redeemed;
and you will be called Cared For,
A City Not Deserted.