Your land is desolate,your cities burned with fire;foreigners devour your fieldsbefore your very eyes—a desolation demolished by foreigners.

Then I said, “Until when, Lord?” And He replied:Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants,houses are without people,the land is ruined and desolate,

who turned the world into a wilderness,who destroyed its citiesand would not release the prisoners to return home?”

Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons,because of the iniquity of their fathers.They will never rise up to possess a landor fill the surface of the earth with cities.

The cities of Aroer are forsaken;they will be places for flocks.They will lie down without fear.

On that day their strong cities will belike the abandoned woods and mountaintopsthat were abandoned because of the Israelites;there will be desolation.

On that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear loyalty to the Lord of Hosts. One of the cities will be called the City of the Sun.

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

Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns;her fortified cities, with thistles and briers.She will become a dwelling for jackals,an abode for ostriches.

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

Have you not heard?I designed it long ago;I planned it in days gone by.I have now brought it to pass,and you have crushed fortified citiesinto piles of rubble.

Zion, herald of good news,go up on a high mountain.Jerusalem, herald of good news,raise your voice loudly.Raise it, do not be afraid!Say to the cities of Judah,“Here is your God!”

Let the desert and its cities shout,the settlements where Kedar dwells cry aloud.Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;let them cry out from the mountaintops.

who confirms the message of His servantand fulfills the counsel of His messengers;who says to Jerusalem, “She will be inhabited,”and to the cities of Judah, “They will be rebuilt,”and I will restore her ruins;

For you will spread out to the right and to the left,and your descendants will dispossess nationsand inhabit the desolate cities.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins;they will restore the former devastations;they will renew the ruined cities,the devastations of many generations.

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