'Cities' in the Bible

Your land is desolate,Your cities are burned with fire,Your fields—strangers are devouring them in your presence;It is desolation, as overthrown by strangers.

Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,Houses are without peopleAnd the land is utterly desolate,

Who made the world like a wildernessAnd overthrew its cities,Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?’

“Prepare for his sons a place of slaughterBecause of the iniquity of their fathers.They must not arise and take possession of the earthAnd fill the face of the world with cities.”

“The cities of Aroer are forsaken;They will be for flocks to lie down in,And there will be no one to frighten them.

In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken places in the forest,Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;And the land will be a desolation.

In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the Lord of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction.

Therefore a strong people will glorify You;Cities of ruthless nations will revere You.

The highways are desolate, the traveler has ceased,He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities,He has no regard for man.

Thorns will come up in its fortified towers,Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;It will also be a haunt of jackalsAnd an abode of ostriches.

Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.

“Have you not heard?Long ago I did it,From ancient times I planned it.Now I have brought it to pass,That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

Get yourself up on a high mountain,O Zion, bearer of good news,Lift up your voice mightily,O Jerusalem, bearer of good news;Lift it up, do not fear.Say to the cities of Judah,“Here is your God!”

Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices,The settlements where Kedar inhabits.Let the inhabitants of Sela sing aloud,Let them shout for joy from the tops of the mountains.

Confirming the word of His servantAnd performing the purpose of His messengers.It is I who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’And of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built.’And I will raise up her ruins again.

“For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left.And your descendants will possess nationsAnd will resettle the desolate cities.

Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins,They will raise up the former devastations;And they will repair the ruined cities,The desolations of many generations.

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