63 Bible Verses about Ruins

"'If you in spite of this won't listen to me, but walk contrary to me; then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins. You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.read more.
I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you. I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your offerings. I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein will be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

You shall gather all its plunder into the midst of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God: and it shall be a ruin forever; it shall not be built again.

The LORD will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you shall not understand; a nation of fierce facial expressions, that shall not respect the person of the old, nor show favor to the young, and shall eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; that also shall not leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.read more.
They shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you.

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

Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations. All her idols will be beaten to pieces, and all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and all her images I will destroy; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return."

Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall of it, and it will be trampled down. I will lay it a wasteland. It won't be pruned nor hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it." For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

Then I said, "Lord, how long?" He answered, "Until cities are waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land becomes utterly waste, And the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remains when they are felled; so the holy seed is its stock."

A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation."

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 incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. The slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am the LORD.

I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.'

"Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob," says the Lord GOD, the God of Hosts. "For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground. I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end," says the LORD.

The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."

Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, to Jerusalem. He burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burnt he with fire. All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.read more.
Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive the residue of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude. But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to work the vineyards and fields. The Chaldeans broke up the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD, and carried the brass pieces to Babylon. They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered. The captain of the guard took away the fire pans, the basins, that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver.

Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or gray-headed: he gave them all into his hand. All the vessels of God's house, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his officials, all these he brought to Babylon. They burnt God's house, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels of it.

The Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the residue of the people who remained in the city, the deserters also who fell away to him, and the residue of the people who remained. But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem: and he burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned he with fire. All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around.read more.
Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the residue of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude. But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and farmers. The Chaldeans broke the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD in pieces, and carried all their bronze to Babylon. They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered. The captain of the guard took away the cups, the fire pans, the basins, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the bowls; that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver.

You have renounced the covenant of your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust. You have broken down all his hedges. You have brought his strongholds to ruin. All who pass by the way rob him. He has become a reproach to his neighbors.

Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it? The boar out of the wood ravages it. The wild animals of the field feed on it. Return, we beg you, God of Hosts. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,read more.
the stock which your right hand planted, the branch that you made strong for yourself. It's burned with fire. It's cut down. They perish at your rebuke.

But now, LORD, you are our Father, and we are clay, and you are our potter; and we all are the work of your hands. Do not be furious, LORD, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we beg you, we are all your people. Your holy cities have become like a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.read more.
Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste. Will you refrain yourself for these things, LORD? Will you hold your peace, and afflict us very severely?

The Lord has become as an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all her palaces and has destroyed its strongholds. He has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. He has done violence to his temple, as if it were a garden; he has destroyed his place of assembly. The LORD has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. He has spurned in his fierce anger the king and the priest. The Lord has rejected his altar, he has disowned his sanctuary, and has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. They have made a shout in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn assembly.read more.
The LORD has determined to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out the line, he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying. He has made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together. Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is no more, and her prophets find no vision from the LORD.

"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwells 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, that they did not know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, 'Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate.'read more.
But they did not listen, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods. Therefore my wrath and my anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.'

The word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Son of man, they who inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, 'Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.' Therefore tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?read more.
You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and every one of you defiles his neighbor's wife: and shall you possess the land?"' "You shall tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him who is in the open field will I give to the animals to be devoured; and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through. Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed."'

For the LORD has comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself; who foils the omens of the empty talkers, and makes fools of diviners; who turns wise men back, and makes their knowledge foolish; who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, 'She will be inhabited;' and of the cities of Judah, 'They will be built,' and 'I will raise up its waste places;'

Those who shall be of you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will turn again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places; and the city shall be built on its own hill, and the palace shall be inhabited in its own way. Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

"Behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal. It shall happen that, like 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," says the LORD.

"'"'But you, mountains of Israel, you 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 into you, and you shall be tilled and sown; and I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built;read more.
and I will multiply on you man and animal; and they shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited after your former estate, and will do better to you than at your beginnings: and you shall know that I am the LORD. Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no more henceforth bereave them of children.'"

In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old; that the rest of mankind, and all the nations upon whom my name is called, may earnestly seek me," says the LORD who does this.

When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak stood up with his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brothers, and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. In spite of their fear because of the peoples of the surrounding lands, they set the altar on its base; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening.read more.
They kept the feast of tents, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required; and afterward the continual burnt offering, the offerings of the new moons, of all the set feasts of the LORD that were consecrated, and of everyone who willingly offered a freewill offering to the LORD. From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD; but the foundation of the LORD's temple was not yet laid. They also gave money to the masons, and to the carpenters. They also gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus King of Persia. Now in the second year of their coming to God's house at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem, began the work and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work of the LORD's house. Then Jeshua stood with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to have the oversight of the workmen in God's house: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brothers the Levites. When the builders laid the foundation of the LORD's temple, they set the priests in their clothing with trumpets, with the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David king of Israel. They sang to one another in praising and giving thanks to the LORD, "For he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever toward Israel." All the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD had been laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of ancestral houses, the old men who had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice. Many also shouted aloud for joy, so that 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 loud shout, and the noise was heard far away.

They said to me, "The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire." It happened, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem; neither was there any animal with me, except the animal that I rode on. I went out by night by the valley gate, even toward the jackal's well, and to the dung gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and its gates were consumed with fire.read more.
Then I went on to the spring gate and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the animal that was under me to pass. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall; and I turned back, and entered by the valley gate, and so returned. The rulers did not know where I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest who did the work. Then I said to them, "You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come, let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we won't be disgraced." I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, as also of the king's words that he had spoken to me. They said, "Let's rise up and build." So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they ridiculed us, and despised us, and said, "What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?" Then answered I them, and said to them, "The God of heaven will prosper us. Therefore we, his servants, will arise and build; but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem."

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the Word of the LORD came by Haggai, the prophet, to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, "This is what the LORD of hosts says: These people say, 'The time hasn't yet come, the time for the LORD's house to be built.'" Then the Word of the LORD came by Haggai, the prophet, saying,read more.
"Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste? Now therefore this is what the LORD of hosts says: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you do not have enough. You drink, but you aren't filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it." This is what the LORD of hosts says: "Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified," says the LORD. "You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" says the LORD of hosts, "Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground brings forth, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands." Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD, their God, and the words of Haggai, the prophet, as the LORD, their God, had sent him; and the people feared the LORD. Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, spoke the LORD's message to the people, saying, "I am with you," says the LORD. The LORD 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 on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, in the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, 'Nineveh is laid waste. Who will mourn for her?' Where will I seek comforters for you?"

He will stretch out his hand against the north, destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as the wilderness. Herds will lie down in the midst of her, all the animals of the nations. Both the pelican and the porcupine will lodge in its capitals. Their calls will echo through the windows. Desolation will be in the thresholds, for he has laid bare the cedar beams. This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, "I am, and there is none besides me." How she has become a desolation, a place for animals to lie down in. Everyone who passes by her will hiss, and shake their fists.

Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there. But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there.read more.
Wolves will cry in their fortresses, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.

Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people was not. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin.

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

Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and tell it, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and an astonishment.read more.
I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am the LORD.

"I have loved you," says the LORD. Yet you say, "How have you loved us?" "Wasn't Esau Jacob's brother?" says the LORD, "Yet I loved Jacob; but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness." Whereas Edom says, "We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;" thus says the LORD of hosts, "They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them 'The Wicked Land,' even the people against whom the LORD shows wrath forever."

You daughter who dwells in Egypt, furnish yourself to go into captivity; for Memphis shall become a desolation, and shall be burnt up, without inhabitant.

"'Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I will bring a sword on you, and will cut off man and animal from you. The land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD. Because he has said, 'The river 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 the tower of Seveneh even to the border of Ethiopia.read more.
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of animal shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years. I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be a desolation forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries."

Of Moab. "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Woe to Nebo. for it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is disappointed, it is taken; Misgab is put to shame and broken down.

For Gaza will be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation. They will drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron will be rooted up. Woe to the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites. The word of the LORD is against you, Canaan, the land of the Philistines. I will destroy you, that there will be no inhabitant. The sea coast will be pastures, with cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks.

therefore thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I am against you, Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up.' They shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.

It happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword. All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.read more.
Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took for prey to themselves, according to the word of the LORD which he commanded Joshua. So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day. He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening, and at the sundown Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day.

It happened, at the time of the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, that Joab led forth the army, and wasted the country of the children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Joab struck Rabbah, and overthrew it.

For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness. He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white. Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth.read more.
The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the LORD's house. The priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn. The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes. Be confounded, you farmers. Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.

Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants. It will 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 creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest. The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for the LORD has spoken this word.read more.
The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish. The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. The new wine mourns. The vine languishes. All the merry-hearted sigh. The mirth of tambourines ceases. The sound of those who rejoice ends. The joy of the harp ceases. They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it. The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in. There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction. For it will be so in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done.

Therefore, by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherim and the incense altars shall rise no more. For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.

The seventh poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came forth out of the temple, from the throne, saying, "It is done." There were lightnings, voices, and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since man was on the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty. The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.read more.
Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. Great hailstones, about the weight of a talent, came down out of the sky on people. People blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for this plague is exceedingly severe.

A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all. The voice of harpists, minstrels, flute players, and trumpeters will be heard no more at all in you. No craftsman, of whatever craft, will be found any more at all in you. The sound of a mill will be heard no more at all in you. The light of a lamp will shine no more at all in you. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will be heard no more at all in you; for your merchants were the princes of the earth; for with your sorcery all the nations were deceived.

Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me"; and all the people came near to him. He repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down.

In the seventh year of Jehu began Jehoash to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba. Jehoash did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. However the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.read more.
Jehoash said to the priests, "All the money of the holy things that is brought into the house of the LORD, in current money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that it comes into any man's heart to bring into the house of the LORD, let the priests take it to them, every man from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the breaches of the house, wherever any breach shall be found." But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said to them, "Why do you not repair the breaches of the house? Now therefore take no more money from your treasurers, but deliver it for the breaches of the house." The priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house. But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of the LORD: and the priests who kept the threshold put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD. It was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags and counted the money that was found in the house of the LORD. They gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the LORD: and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders, who worked on the house of the LORD, and to the masons and the stone cutters, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.

It happened after this, that Joash intended to restore the house of the LORD. He gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, "Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money to repair the house of your God from all Israel from year to year. See that you expedite this matter." However the Levites did not do it right away. The king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, "Why haven't you required of the Levites to bring in the tax of Moses the servant of the LORD, and of the assembly of Israel, out of Judah and out of Jerusalem, for the tent of the testimony?"read more.
For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up God's house; and they also gave all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD to the Baals. So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of the LORD. They made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for the LORD the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness. And all the leaders and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and threw it into the chest, until it was full. It was so, that whenever the chest was brought to the king's officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king's scribe and the chief priest's officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. The king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of the LORD; and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the LORD, and also such as worked iron and brass to repair the house of the LORD. So the workmen worked, and the work of repairing went forward in their hands, and they set up God's house in its state, and strengthened it.

It happened in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying, "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the money which is brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered of the people. Let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD; and let them give it to the workmen who are in the house of the LORD, to repair the breaches of the house,read more.
to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the house. However there was no accounting made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand; for they dealt faithfully."

Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had 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 recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God. They came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into God's house, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, 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. They delivered it into the hand of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the LORD; and the workmen who labored in the house of the LORD gave it to mend and repair the house;read more.
even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy cut stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. The men did the work faithfully: and their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and others of the Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music. Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all who did the work in every kind of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and gatekeepers.

Like a city that is broken down and without walls is a man whose spirit is without restraint.

For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest, with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs. He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.