"At that time, every place where once there were a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briars and thorns will grow.

As for all the hills that used to be cultivated with a hoe, you won't go there, because you'll fear iron briars and thorns. Nevertheless, those hills will be reserved as a pasture where cattle will feed and where sheep will graze."

What will you do on the day of Judgment, in the calamity that will come from far away? To whom will you run for help, and where will you leave your wealth,

Where are your wise men now? Let them tell you, let them make known what the LORD has planned against Egypt.

"How terrible it will be for you, Aruel, Aruel, the city where David encamped! Year after year, let your festivals run their cycle.

An oracle about the animals of the Negev: "Through a land of trouble, dryness, and distress, of lionesses and roaring lions, where there is no water, a land of vipers and darting snakes, he carries their riches on donkeys' backs, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a nation that cannot benefit them,

Your mind will ponder at that time of terror: "Where is the king's accountant? Where is the one who weighed the revenue? Where is the officer who supervises the towers?'

But there the LORD in majesty will be for us our source of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, where no stately ship can sail.

Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah replied to him, "Please speak with your servants with us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew where the people sitting on the wall can hear."

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sephar-vaim? Have they saved Samaria from me?

Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sephar-vaim, or of Hena, or of Ivvah, or of Samaria?'"

Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What did these men have to say? And from where did they come to you?" Hezekiah replied, "From a distant land they came to me from Babylon."

Let the desert cry out, its towns and the villages where Kedar lives; and let those who live in Sela sing for joy. Let them shout aloud from the mountaintops.

Then you'll ask in your heart, "Who bore these children for me, although I was childless and barren, and an exile and cast aside? Who brought these up? Look! For my part I was left all alone; but as for these, where have they come from?'

This is what the LORD says: "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Look! It's because of your sins that you were sold, and because of your transgressions that your mother was sent away.

As a result, you have forgotten the LORD who made you, who stretched out the heavens and laid the earth's foundations, and you live in constant fear every day because of the oppressor's fury, since he's ready to destroy. Now where is the oppressor's fury?

Then they remembered the days of old, of Moses his servant. Where is the one who brought up out of the sea the shepherds of his flock? Where is the one who put his Holy Spirit among them,

Look down from heaven, and see from your holy and glorious dwelling. Where are your zeal and your might? Where are the yearning of your heart and your compassion? They are held back from me.

Our holy Temple and our splendor, where our ancestors praised you, have become a conflagration of fire, and all our dearest places have become ruins.

This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you would build for me, and where will my resting place be?