63 Bible Verses about Ruins

And if for this ye hearken not to me, but walk contrary unto me, then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven-fold for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.read more.
And I will lay waste your high places, and cut down your sun-pillars, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you. And I will lay waste your cities and desolate your sanctuaries; and I will not smell your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desolation; that your enemies who dwell there in may be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out the sword after you; and your land shall be desolation, and your cities waste.

And all the spoil of it shalt thou gather into the midst of the open place thereof, and shalt burn the city with fire, and all the spoil thereof, wholly to Jehovah thy God; and it shall be a heap for ever; it shall not be built again.

Jehovah will bring a nation against thee from afar, from the end of the earth, like as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou understandest not; a nation of fierce countenance, which regardeth not the person of the old, nor is kind to the young; and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, until thou be destroyed; for he shall not leave thee corn, new wine, or oil, offspring of thy kine, or increase of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.read more.
And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and strong walls wherein thou trustedst come down, throughout all thy land; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates in all thy land, which Jehovah thy God hath given thee.

And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

Therefore will I make Samaria as a heap of the field, as plantings of a vineyard; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will lay bare the foundations thereof. And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her harlot-gifts shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I make a desolation; for of the hire of a harlot hath she gathered them, and to a harlot's hire shall they return.

And now, let me tell you what I am about to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trodden under foot; and I will make it a waste it shall not be pruned nor cultivated, but there shall come up briars and thorns; and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah the plant of his delight: and he looked for justice, and behold, blood-shedding; for righteousness, and behold, a cry.

And I said, Lord, how long? And he said, Until the cities be wasted, without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land become an utter desolation, and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the solitude be great in the midst of the land. But a tenth part shall still be therein, and it shall return and be eaten; as the terebinth and as the oak whose trunk remaineth after the felling: the holy seed shall be the trunk thereof.

The lion is come up from his thicket, the destroyer of the nations is on his way; he is gone forth from his place, to make thy land desolate; thy cities shall be laid waste, without inhabitant.

But if ye will not hear these words, I have sworn by myself, saith Jehovah, that this house shall become a waste.

In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your sun-images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

I will overturn, overturn, overturn it! This also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it to him.

Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord Jehovah, the God of hosts, that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also punish the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. And I will smite the winter-house with the summer-house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and many houses shall have an end, saith Jehovah.

And the high places of Isaac shall be desolated, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will arise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

And in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month, which was in the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzar-adan, captain of the body-guard, servant of the king of Babylon, came unto Jerusalem; and he burned the house of Jehovah, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; and every great man's house he burned with fire. And all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the captain of the body-guard broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about.read more.
And Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard carried away captive the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the deserters that had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. But the captain of the body-guard left of the poor of the land for vinedressers and husbandmen. And the brazen pillars that were in the house of Jehovah, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of Jehovah, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried the brass thereof to Babylon. The cauldrons also and the shovels and the knives and the cups, and all the vessels of copper wherewith they ministered, they took away. And the censers and the bowls, that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, the captain of the body-guard took away.

And he brought up against them the king of the Chaldees, and slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and spared not young man nor maiden, old man nor him of hoary head: he gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, he brought all to Babylon. And they burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all the palaces thereof with fire, and all the precious vessels thereof were given up to destruction.

And the Chaldeans burned the king's house and the houses of the people with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. And Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard carried away captive into Babylon the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the deserters that had deserted to him, with the rest of the people that were left. But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard left certain of the people, the poor who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

And in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, which was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzar-adan, captain of the body-guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came unto Jerusalem; and he burned the house of Jehovah, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; and every great man's house he burned with fire. And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the body-guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.read more.
And Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard carried away captive of the poorest sort of the people, and the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the deserters that had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard left of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for husbandmen. And the brazen pillars that were in the house of Jehovah, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of Jehovah, the Chaldeans broke up, and carried all the brass thereof to Babylon. The pots also, and the shovels, and the knives, and the bowls, and the cups, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, they took away. And the basons and the censers, and the bowls, and the pots, and the candlesticks, and the cups, and the goblets, that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, the captain of the body-guard took away.

Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned his crown to the ground: Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin. All that pass by the way plunder him; he is become a reproach to his neighbours.

Lift up thy steps unto the perpetual desolations: everything in the sanctuary hath the enemy destroyed.

Why hast thou broken down its fences, so that all who pass by the way do pluck it? The boar out of the forest doth waste it, and the beast of the field doth feed off it. O God of hosts, return, we beseech thee; look down from the heavens, and behold, and visit this vine;read more.
Even the stock which thy right hand hath planted, and the young plant thou madest strong for thyself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down; they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.

And now, Jehovah, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Jehovah, neither remember iniquity for ever. Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. Thy holy cities are become a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.read more.
Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burnt up with fire, and all our precious things are laid waste. Wilt thou restrain thyself in presence of these things, Jehovah? Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?

The Lord is become as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel; he hath swallowed up all her palaces; he hath destroyed his strongholds, and hath multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. And he hath violently cast down his enclosure as a garden; he hath destroyed his place of assembly: Jehovah hath caused set feast and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger king and priest. The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath rejected his sanctuary; he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces: they have made a noise in the house of Jehovah, as on the day of a set feast.read more.
Jehovah hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out the line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying; and he hath made the rampart and the wall to lament: they languish together. Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from Jehovah.

Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and behold they are, this day, a waste, and no man dwelleth therein, because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense to serve other gods which they knew not, they, nor ye, nor your fathers. And I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing which I hate!read more.
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. And my fury and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are become a waste, a desolation, as at this day.

And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, they that inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited this land, and we are many: the land is given us for a possession. Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood; and shall ye possess the land?read more.
Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour's wife; and shall ye possess the land? Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: As I live, verily they that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. And I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment, and the pride of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolated, so that none shall pass through. And they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment because of all their abominations which they have committed.

For Jehovah shall comfort Zion, he shall comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah: gladness and joy shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of song.

And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the places desolate from generation to generation.

Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb: I am Jehovah, the maker of all things; who alone stretched out the heavens, who did spread forth the earth by myself; he that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; that confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built up, and I will raise up their ruins;

And they that come of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations that have remained from generation to generation; and thou shalt be called, Repairer of the breaches, restorer of frequented paths.

Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will turn the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his habitations; and the city shall be built upon her own heap; and the palace shall be inhabited after the manner thereof. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be diminished; and I will honour them, and they shall not be small.

Behold, days come, saith Jehovah, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to overthrow, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them to build, and to plant, saith Jehovah.

And ye mountains of Israel shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel: for they are at hand to come. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown. And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, the whole of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded.read more.
And I will multiply upon you man and beast, and they shall increase and bring forth fruit; and I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, yea, I will make it better than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. And I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of children.

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David which is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations upon whom my name is called, saith Jehovah who doeth this.

And when the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer up burnt-offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. And they set the altar on its base; for fear was upon them because of the people of the countries; and they offered up burnt-offerings on it to Jehovah, the morning and evening burnt-offerings.read more.
And they held the feast of tabernacles as it is written, and offered daily burnt-offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required; and afterwards the continual burnt-offering, and those of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of Jehovah that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a voluntary offering to Jehovah. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer up burnt-offerings to Jehovah. But the foundation of the temple of Jehovah was not yet laid. And they gave money to the masons and to the carpenters; and meat and drink and oil to the Zidonians and to the Tyrians, to bring cedar-trees from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia. And in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem; and they appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to superintend the work of the house of Jehovah. And Jeshua stood up, his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, as one man, to superintend the workmen in the house of God; also the sons of Henadad, their sons and their brethren, the Levites. And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of Jehovah, they set the priests in their apparel, with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise Jehovah according to the directions of David king of Israel. And they sang alternately together in praising and giving thanks to Jehovah: For he is good, for his loving-kindness endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout to the praise of Jehovah, because the foundation of the house of Jehovah was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and chief fathers, the ancient men that had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice, when the foundation of this house was laid in their sight; and many shouted aloud for joy. And the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a great shout, and the noise was heard afar off.

And they said to me, Those who remain, that are left of the captivity there in the province, are in great affliction and reproach; and the wall of Jerusalem is in ruins, and its gates are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat and wept, and mourned for days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of the heavens,

And I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me but I told no man what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem and there was no beast with me, except the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the valley-gate, even toward the jackal-fountain, and to the dung-gate; and I viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were in ruins, and its gates were consumed with fire.read more.
And I went on to the fountain-gate, and to the king's pool; and there was no place for the beast under me to pass. And I went up in the night through the valley, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the valley-gate and returned. And the rulers did not know whither I went or what I did, for I had not as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work. And I said to them, Ye see the distress that we are in, that Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me; as also of the king's words which he had said unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. And they strengthened their hands for the good work. And Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobijah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it; and they mocked us and despised us, and said, What is this thing which ye do? will ye rebel against the king? And I answered them, and said to them, The God of the heavens, he will prosper us, and we his servants will arise and build; but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem.

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, came the word of Jehovah by the prophet Haggai unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that Jehovah's house should be built. And the word of Jehovah came by Haggai the prophet, saying,read more.
Is it time for you that ye should dwell in your wainscoted houses, while this house lieth waste? And now thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but are not satisfied; ye drink, but are not filled with drink; ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages for a bag with holes. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith Jehovah. Ye looked for much, and behold it was little; and when ye brought it home, I blew upon it. Wherefore? saith Jehovah of hosts. Because of my house that lieth waste, whilst ye run every man to his own house. Therefore over you the heavens withhold their dew, and the earth withholdeth its fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon man, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands. And Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people, hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, according as Jehovah their God had sent him, and the people feared before Jehovah. Then spoke Haggai, Jehovah's messenger, in Jehovah's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith Jehovah. And Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked at the house of Jehovah of hosts, their God, in the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

And it shall come to pass, that all they that see thee shall flee from thee, and shall say, Nineveh is laid waste! Who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?

And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, a place of drought like the wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the crowd of beasts; both the pelican and the bittern shall lodge in the chapiters thereof; a voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be on the thresholds: for he hath laid bare the cedar work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt in security, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none else beside me: how is she become a desolation, a couching-place for beasts! Every one that passeth by her shall hiss, shall wave his hand.

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in, even to generation and generation; nor shall Arabian pitch tent there, nor shepherds make fold there. But beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of owls; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.read more.
And jackals shall cry to one another in their palaces, and wild dogs in the pleasant castles. And her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

Behold the land of the Chaldeans: this people did not exist; the Assyrian founded it for the dwellers in the desert: they set up their towers, they destroyed the palaces thereof; he brought it to ruin.

And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and say unto it, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and I will make thee a desolation and an astonishment.read more.
I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be a desolation: and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah.

I have loved you, saith Jehovah; but ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith Jehovah, and I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau; and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness. If Edom say, We are broken down, but we will build again the ruined places, thus saith Jehovah of hosts: They shall build, but I will throw down; and men shall call them the territory of wickedness, and the people against whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever.

Thou, inhabitress, daughter of Egypt, furnish for thyself a captive's baggage, for Noph shall be a desolation and shall be ruined, so that none shall dwell therein.

Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast from thee. And the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste: and they shall know that I am Jehovah, because he saith, The river is mine, and I made it. Therefore behold, I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt deserts of wasteness and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, even unto the border of Ethiopia.read more.
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor shall foot of beast pass through it, nor shall it be inhabited, forty years. And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the countries that are desolated, and her cities shall be, in the midst of the cities that are laid waste, a desolation forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

Concerning Moab. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe unto Nebo! for it is spoiled; Kirjathaim is put to shame, it is taken; Misgab is put to shame and dismayed.

For Gazah shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon shall be a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of Jehovah is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines: I will destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant; and the sea-coast shall be cave-dwellings for shepherds, and folds for flocks.

therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth its waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers. And I will scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.

And it came to pass when Israel had ended slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they had chased them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword. And so it was, that all who fell that day, men as well as women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai. And Joshua did not draw back his hand, which he had stretched out with the javelin, until they had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.read more.
Only, the cattle and the spoil of the city Israel took as prey to themselves, according to the word of Jehovah which he had commanded Joshua. And Joshua burned Ai, and made it an everlasting heap of desolation to this day. And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the evening; and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his carcase down from the tree, and threw it down at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised upon it a great heap of stones, which remains to this day.

And it came to pass at the time of the return of the year, at the time when kings go forth, that Joab led forth the power of the army, and laid waste the land of the children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David abode at Jerusalem. And Joab smote Rabbah, and overthrew it.

For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number: his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a lioness. He hath made my vine a desolation, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away: its branches are made white. Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.read more.
The oblation and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah's ministers, mourn. The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ashamed, ye husbandmen; howl, ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley: because the harvest of the field hath perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm also and the apple-tree; all the trees of the field are withered, yea, joy is withered away from the children of men.

Behold, Jehovah maketh the land empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad its inhabitants. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with him from whom usury is taken. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for Jehovah hath spoken this word.read more.
The land mourneth, it fadeth away; the world languisheth, it fadeth away: the haughty people of the land do languish. And the land is polluted under the inhabitants thereof; for they have violated the laws, changed the statute, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore doth the curse devour the earth, and they that dwell therein are held guilty; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are consumed, and few men are left. The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all that were merry-hearted do sigh; the mirth of tambours ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth. They do not drink wine with a song; strong drink is bitter to them that drink it. The city of solitude is broken down; every house is shut up, so that none entereth in. There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone; desolation remaineth in the city, and the gate is smitten, a ruin. For so will it be in the midst of the land among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive-tree, as the grape-gleanings when the vintage is done.

By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit of the taking away of his sin: when he shall make all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are crumbled in pieces, the Asherahs and the sun-images shall not stand. For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation abandoned and forsaken like a wilderness; there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume its boughs.

And the seventh poured out his bowl on the air; and there came out a great voice from the temple of the heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, such an earthquake, so great. And the great city was divided into three parts; and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.read more.
And every island fled, and mountains were not found; and a great hail, as of a talent weight, comes down out of the heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, for the plague of it is exceeding great.

And a strong angel took up a stone, as a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall Babylon the great city be cast down, and shall be found no more at all; and voice of harp-singers and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters shall not be heard any more at all in thee, and no artificer of any art shall be found any more at all in thee, and voice of millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee, and light of lamp shall shine no more at all in thee, and voice of bridegroom and bride shall be heard no more at all in thee; for thy merchants were the great ones of the earth; for by thy sorcery have all the nations been deceived.

Then Elijah said to all the people, Draw near to me. And all the people drew near to him. And he repaired the altar of Jehovah which was broken down.

In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. And Jehoash did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, all the days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Only, the high places were not removed: the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.read more.
And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, the money of every one that passes the account, the money at which every man is valued, and all the money that comes into any man's heart to bring into the house of Jehovah, let the priests take it, every man of his acquaintance; and let them repair the breaches of the house, wherever any breach is found. And it was so that in the twenty-third year of king Jehoash, the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the priests, and said to them, Why have ye not repaired the breaches of the house? And now receive no money of your acquaintances, but give it for the breaches of the house. And the priests consented to receive no money of the people, and that they should only repair the breaches of the house. And Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of Jehovah; and the priests that kept the door put into it all the money brought into the house of Jehovah. And it came to pass when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they tied up and counted the money that was found in the house of Jehovah. And they gave the money, weighed out into the hands of them that did the work, who were appointed over the house of Jehovah; and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders that wrought upon the house of Jehovah, and to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of Jehovah, and for all that had to be laid out on the house for repairs.

And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to renew the house of Jehovah. And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah and collect of all Israel money for the repair of the house of your God from year to year, and ye shall hasten the matter. But the Levites hastened it not. And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tribute of Moses the servant of Jehovah laid upon the congregation of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?read more.
For the wicked Athaliah and her sons had devastated the house of God; and also all the hallowed things of the house of Jehovah had they employed for the Baals. And the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it at the gate of the house of Jehovah without, and they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring to Jehovah the tribute of Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness. And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in and cast into the chest, until they had finished. And it came to pass at the time the chest was brought for the king's control by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king's scribe and high priest's officer came, and they emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of Jehovah, and they hired masons and carpenters to renew the house of Jehovah, and also such as wrought in iron and bronze, to repair the house of Jehovah. So the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set the house of God in its state, and strengthened it.

And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of Jehovah, saying, Go up to Hilkijah the high priest, that he may sum up the money which is brought into the house of Jehovah, which the doorkeepers have gathered of the people, and let them give it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and let them give it to those that do the work in the house of Jehovah, to repair the breaches of the house,read more.
to the carpenters and the builders and the masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. But no reckoning was made with them of the money that was given into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.

And in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the chronicler, to repair the house of Jehovah his God. And they came to Hilkijah the high priest, and they delivered to them the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And they gave it into the hand of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and they gave it to the workmen who wrought in the house of Jehovah to reinstate and repair the house:read more.
they gave it to the carpenters and the builders, to buy hewn stone, and timber for the joists, and to floor the houses that the kings of Judah had destroyed. And the men did the work faithfully. And over them were appointed Jahath and Obadiah, Levites, of the children of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the children of the Kohathites, for the oversight; and all these Levites were skilled in instruments of music. They were also over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that worked in any manner of service. And of the Levites were the scribes, and officers, and doorkeepers.

He that hath no rule over his own spirit is as a city broken down, without walls.

For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept: then had I been at rest, With kings and counsellors of the earth, who build desolate places for themselves,

For he hath covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon his flanks. And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps.