'Cities' in the Bible

Indeed, I am about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north.”This is the Lord’s declaration.They will come, and each king will set up his throneat the entrance to Jerusalem’s gates.They will attack all her surrounding wallsand all the other cities of Judah.

The young lions have roared at him;they have roared loudly.They have laid waste his land.His cities are in ruins, without inhabitants.

But where are your gods you made for yourself?Let them rise up and save youin your time of disaster if they can,for your gods are as numerous as your cities, Judah.

Declare in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say:Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land.Cry out loudly and say:Assemble yourselves,and let’s flee to the fortified cities.

A lion has gone up from his thicket;a destroyer of nations has set out.He has left his lairto make your land a waste.Your cities will be reduced to uninhabited ruins.

Warn the nations: Look!Proclaim to Jerusalem:Those who besiege are comingfrom a distant land;they raise their voicesagainst the cities of Judah.

I looked, and the fertile field was a wilderness.All its cities were torn downbecause of the Lordand His burning anger.

Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down.A wolf from an arid plain will ravage them.A leopard keeps watch over their cities.Anyone who leaves them will be torn to piecesbecause their rebellious acts are many,their unfaithful deeds numerous.

They will consume your harvest and your food.They will consume your sons and your daughters.They will consume your flocks and your herds.They will consume your vines and your fig trees.They will destroy with the swordyour fortified cities in which you trust.

Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness and the voices of the groom and the bride, for the land will become a desolate waste.

Why are we just sitting here?Gather together; let us enter the fortified citiesand perish there,for the Lord our God has destroyed us.He has given us poisoned water to drink,because we have sinned against the Lord.

I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble,a jackals’ den.I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,an uninhabited place.

Listen! A noise—it is coming—a great commotion from the land to the north.The cities of Judah will be made desolate,a jackals’ den.

The Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Obey the words of this covenant and carry them out.

Then the cities of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods they have been burning incense to, but they certainly will not save them in their time of disaster.

Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, Judah, and the altars you have set up to Shame—altars to burn incense to Baal—as numerous as the streets of Jerusalem.

The cities of the Negev are under siege;no one can help them.All of Judah has been taken into exile,taken completely into exile.

Then people will come from the cities of Judah and from the area around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the Judean foothills, from the hill country and from the Negev bringing burnt offerings and sacrifice, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.

Let that man be like the citiesthe Lord demolished without compassion.Let him hear an outcry in the morningand a war cry at noontime

For this is what the Lord says concerning the house of the king of Judah:You are like Gilead to Me,or the summit of Lebanon,but I will certainly turn you into a wilderness,uninhabited cities.

These included:Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah, its kings and its officials, to make them a desolate ruin, an object of scorn and cursing—as it is today;

“This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple and speak all the words I have commanded you to speak to all Judah’s cities that are coming to worship there. Do not hold back a word.

Set up road markers for yourself;establish signposts!Keep the highway in mind,the way you have traveled.Return, Virgin Israel!Return to these cities of yours.

This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “When I restore their fortunes, they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities, ‘May the Lord bless you, righteous settlement, holy mountain.’

Judah and all its cities will live in it together—also farmers and those who move with the flocks—

“This is what the Lord says: In this place, which you say is a ruin, without man or beast—that is, in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets that are a desolation without man, without inhabitant, and without beast—there will be heard again

“This is what the Lord of Hosts says: In this desolate place—without man or beast—and in all its cities there will once more be a grazing land where shepherds may rest flocks.

The flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them in the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, the cities of the Negev, the land of Benjamin—the cities surrounding Jerusalem and Judah’s cities, says the Lord.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, all his army, all the earthly kingdoms under his control, and all other nations were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding cities:

while the king of Babylon’s army was attacking Jerusalem and all of Judah’s remaining cities—against Lachish and Azekah, for they were the only ones left of Judah’s fortified cities.

I am about to give the command”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. I will make Judah’s cities a desolation, without inhabitant.”

so you must go and read from the scroll—which you wrote at my dictation—the words of the Lord in the hearing of the people at the temple of the Lord on a day of fasting. You must also read them in the hearing of all the Judeans who are coming from their cities.

In the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people of Jerusalem and all those coming in from Judah’s cities into Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord.

When Jeremiah had not yet turned to go, Nebuzaradan said to him: “Return to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and stay with him among the people or go wherever you want to go.” So the captain of the guard gave him a ration and a gift and released him.

As for me, I am going to live in Mizpah to represent you before the Chaldeans who come to us. As for you, gather wine, summer fruit, and oil, place them in your storage jars, and live in the cities you have captured.”

“This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the disaster I brought against Jerusalem and all Judah’s cities; look, they are a ruin today without an inhabitant in them

So My fierce wrath poured out and burned in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets so that they became the desolate ruin they are today.

Instead, we will do everything we said we would: burn incense to the queen of heaven and offer drink offerings to her just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in Judah’s cities and in Jerusalem’s streets. Then we had enough food and good things and saw no disaster,

“As for the incense you burned in Judah’s cities and in Jerusalem’s streets—you, your fathers, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land—did the Lord not remember them? He brought this to mind.

Egypt rises like the Nile,and its waters churn like rivers.He boasts, “I will go up, I will cover the earth;I will destroy cities with their residents.”

This is what the Lord says:Look, waters are rising from the northand becoming an overflowing wadi.They will overflow the land and everything in it,the cities and their inhabitants.The people will cry out,and every inhabitant of the land will wail.

About the Ammonites, this is what the Lord says:Does Israel have no sons?Is he without an heir?Why then has Milcom dispossessed Gadand his people settled in their cities?

For by Myself I have sworn”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“Bozrah will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and a curse, and all her cities will become ruins forever.”

The arrogant will stumble and fallwith no one to pick him up.I will set fire to his cities,and it will consume everything around him.”

Her cities have become a desolation,a dry and arid land,a land where no one lives,where no human being passes through.