'Cities' in the Bible

“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.

ב BetWithout compassion the Lord has swallowed upall the dwellings of Jacob.In His wrath He has demolishedthe fortified cities of Daughter Judah.He brought them to the groundand defiled the kingdom and its leaders.

ה HeThe Lord is like an enemy;He has swallowed up Israel.He swallowed up all its palacesand destroyed its fortified cities.He has multiplied mourning and lamentationwithin Daughter Judah.

Women are raped in Zion,girls in the cities of Judah.

Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.

The inhabited cities will be destroyed, and the land will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.”

He devastated their strongholdsand destroyed their cities.The land and everything in it shudderedat the sound of his roaring.

therefore I am about to expose Moab’s flank beginning with its frontier cities, the pride of the land: Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim.

For this is what the Lord God says: “When I make you a ruined city like other deserted cities, when I raise up the deep against you so that the mighty waters cover you,

I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolate lands, and its cities will be a desolation among ruined cities for 40 years. I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them across the countries.

They will be desolateamong desolate lands,and their cities will lieamong ruined cities.

The young men of On and Pi-besethwill fall by the sword,and those cities will go into captivity.

I will turn your cities into ruins,and you will become a desolation.Then you will know that I am Yahweh.

I will make you a perpetual desolation; your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.

therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have become plunder and a mockery to the rest of the nations all around.

I will fill you with people, with the whole house of Israel in its entirety. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.

“This is what the Lord God says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the ruins will be rebuilt.

Then they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden. The cities that were once ruined, desolate, and destroyed are now fortified and inhabited.’

So the ruined cities will be filled with a flock of people, just as the flock of sheep for sacrifice is filled in Jerusalem during its appointed festivals. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.”

“Then the inhabitants of Israel’s cities will go out, kindle fires, and burn the weapons—the bucklers and shields, the bows and arrows, the clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them to make fires.

During a time of peace, he will come into the richest parts of the province and do what his fathers and predecessors never did. He will lavish plunder, loot, and wealth on his followers, and he will make plans against fortified cities, but only for a time.

Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;Judah has also multiplied fortified cities.I will send fire on their cities,and it will consume their citadels.

A sword will whirl through his cities;it will destroy and devour the bars of his gates,because of their schemes.

Where now is your king,that he may save you in all your cities,and the rulers you demanded, saying,“Give me a king and leaders”?

I gave you absolutely nothing to eatin all your cities,a shortage of food in all your communities,yet you did not return to Me.This is the Lord’s declaration.

Two or three cities staggeredto another city to drink waterbut were not satisfied,yet you did not return to Me.This is the Lord’s declaration.

I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel.They will rebuild and occupy ruined cities,plant vineyards and drink their wine,make gardens and eat their produce.

The exiles of the Israelites who are in Halahand who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephathas well as the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharadwill possess the cities of the Negev.

I will remove the cities of your landand tear down all your fortresses.

I will pull up the Asherah poles from among youand demolish your cities.

On that day people will come to youfrom Assyria and the cities of Egypt,even from Egypt to the Euphrates Riverand from sea to seaand mountain to mountain.

Since you have plundered many nations,all the peoples who remain will plunder you—because of human bloodshedand violence against lands, cities,and all who live in them.

For your violence against Lebanonwill overwhelm you;the destruction of animals will terrify youbecause of your human bloodshed and violenceagainst lands, cities, and all who live in them.

a day of trumpet blast and battle cryagainst the fortified cities,and against the high corner towers.

I have cut off nations;their corner towers are destroyed.I have laid waste their streets,with no one to pass through.Their cities lie devastated,without a person, without an inhabitant.

Then the Angel of the Lord responded, “How long, Lord of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah that You have been angry with these 70 years?”

“Proclaim further: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: My cities will again overflow with prosperity; the Lord will once more comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.”

Aren’t these the words that the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure, along with its surrounding cities, and when the southern region and the Judean foothills were inhabited?”

The Lord of Hosts says this: “Peoples will yet come, the residents of many cities;

In all the synagogues I often tried to make them blaspheme by punishing them. I even pursued them to foreign cities since I was greatly enraged at them.

and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to ruin, making them an example to those who were going to be ungodly;

In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them committed sexual immorality and practiced perversions, just as angels did, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the Great was remembered in God’s presence; He gave her the cup filled with the wine of His fierce anger.