'City' in the Bible

Now look, I have made you {today} as a fortified city and as an iron pillar and a bronze wall against all the land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.

"Return, apostate children," {declares} Yahweh. "For {I am your master}, and I will take you one from a city and two from a clan, and I will bring you [to] Zion.

For thus says Yahweh of hosts, "Cut down trees and heap up a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This [is] the city that must be punished, its oppression [is] in its midst.

"From Dan is heard the snorting of their horses, from the sound of the neighing of their stallions all the land quakes, for they come and devour the land, and that which fills [the] city, and [those who] live in it.

If I go out [into] the field, then look, those slain by [the] sword. And if I enter the city, then look, the sickness of [the] famine. For both prophet and priest wander around through the land, {they do not know what is going on}.'"

"And it will happen, if you carefully listen to me," {declares} Yahweh, "to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the day of the Sabbath, but to declare holy the day of Sabbath, not to do on it any work,

then kings and officials who sit on the throne of David will enter through the gates of this city riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their officials, the people of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited {forever}.

And I will make this city a horror, and [an object of] hissing, everyone [who] passes by it will be appalled, and will hiss because of all its wounds.

And you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "So I will break this people and this city as one breaks the vessel of the potter, [so] that it is not able to be repaired again. And in Topheth they will bury {until there is no room to bury}.

Thus will I do to this place," {declares} Yahweh, "and to its inhabitants, to make this city like Topheth.

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Look, I [am] about to bring to this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their neck to not hear my words.'"

And I will give all the wealth of this city, and all its acquisitions, and all its precious items, and all of the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, and they will seize them, and they will bring them [to] Babylon.

'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: "Look, I [am] about to turn back the weapons of war that [are] in your hands, [with] which you [are] fighting against them, the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you from outside the wall, and I will gather them into the center of this city.

And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both humankind and animal; by a great plague they will die.

And {afterward}," {declares} Yahweh, "I will give Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and those who remain in this city from the plague, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their lives, and he will strike them with [the] {edge} of [the] sword. He will not take pity on them, and he will not have compassion, nor will he show compassion." '

He who stays in this city will die by the sword, or by the famine, or by the plague. And he who goes out and goes over to the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you will live, and his life will be to him as booty.

For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good," {declares} Yahweh. It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire." '

And many nations will pass by this city and they will say each one to his neighbor, '{Why} has Yahweh done in this manner to this great city?'

{Therefore} look, here I am, and I will surely lift you up and forsake you and the city that I gave to you and to your ancestors from {my presence},

For look, on the city that is called {by} my name I [am] beginning to inflict harm, and you indeed, will you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I [am] summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth," {declares} Yahweh of hosts.'

then I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse for all the nations of the earth.'" '"

Why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh, {saying}, 'This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be in ruins, {without} inhabitant'?" And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the temple of Yahweh.

Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, {saying}, "{This man deserves the death sentence}, because he has prophesied against this city as that [which] you have heard with your ears."

Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and to all the people, {saying}, "Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

Only you must certainly know that if you put me to death, you will bring on yourselves innocent blood, and on this city and on its inhabitants, for {truly} Yahweh sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears."

Indeed, there also was a man prophesying in the name of Yahweh, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-Jearim, and he prophesied against this city and against this land like all the words of Jeremiah.

And you must not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a site of ruins?

For thus says Yahweh of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the stands, and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city,

And seek the prosperity of the city where I have deported you, and pray on behalf of it to Yahweh, for in its prosperity you will have prosperity.'

for thus says Yahweh concerning the king who sits on the throne of David and concerning all the people who live in this city, your fellow kinsmen who did not go with you into the exile--

Thus says Yahweh: 'Look, I [will] restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob, and I will have compassion on his dwellings, and [the] city will be rebuilt upon its mound, and [the] citadel fortress will stand on its rightful site.

"Look, days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "and the city will be rebuilt for Yahweh, from the Tower of Hananel [to] the Corner Gate.

where Zedekiah, the king of Judah, had confined him, {saying}, "Why [are] you prophesying, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] going to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it,

Look, the siege ramps have come up [to] the city to capture it, and the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it, because of the sword, the famine, and the plague, and what you spoke happened, and look, you [are] seeing [it].

Yet you have said to me, Lord Yahweh, "Buy for yourself the field with the money, and call witnesses as witness," though the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.'"

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh: "Look, I [am] going to give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.

And the Chaldeans, who are fighting against this city, will come and set this city on fire, and they will burn it, and the houses where they have made smoke offerings on their roofs to Baal, and [where] they have devoted libations to other gods, in order to provoke me to anger.

"For this city has been for me [a cause] of my anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even until this day, [so I will] remove it from my {sight},

"So now {therefore}, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning this city, [of] which you [are] saying, 'It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the plague':

For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, that were torn down [to make a defense] against the siege ramps and against the sword:

'[They are] coming to fight against the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the corpses of the people whom I will strike in my anger and in my wrath, for whom I have hidden my face from this city because of all their wickedness.

"Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'Go and say to Zedekiah the king of Judah, now you must say to him, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Look, I [am] going to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.

Look, I [am] going to command,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and I will bring them back to this city, and they will fight against it, and they will capture it, and they will burn it with fire, and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation {without} an inhabitant.'"

And the Chaldeans will return, and they will fight against this city, and they will capture it, and they will burn it with fire." '

For [even] if you struck the whole army of [the] Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and [only] men pierced through remained among them, each one in his tent, they would rise up and they would burn this city with fire.'"

So King Zedekiah commanded, and they handed Jeremiah over in the courtyard of the guard, and they gave to him a round loaf of bread from the street of the bakers {every day} until the finishing of all the bread from the city. And Jeremiah stayed in the courtyard of the guard.

"Thus says Yahweh, 'The [one who] stays in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague. But the [one who] goes out to the Chaldeans will live. And his life will be for him as booty, and he will live.'

Thus says Yahweh, 'Surely this city will be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.'"

Then the officials said to the king, "Please, this man must be killed, {because} he [is] making slack the hands of {the soldiers} who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking to them words like these, for this man [is] not seeking for welfare to this people, {but only} for harm."

"My lord the king, these men have done evil [in] all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, [in] that they have thrown [him] into the pit, and he will die {there} {because of} starvation, for there is no longer any bread in the city."

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, 'If only you will go surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then {you} will live, and this city will not be burned with fire, and you will live, you and your house.

But if you [do] not go surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you will not escape from their hand.'"

And all your wives and your children [will be] led out to the Chaldeans, and you will not escape from their hand, but by the hand of the king of Babylon you will be seized, and this city will burn with fire."

In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on [the] ninth [day] of the month, the city was taken by assault.

{And then} {when} Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all {the soldiers} [with him], they fled and went out [at] night from the city [by] the way of the garden of the king through [the] gate between the walls. And they went out toward the Jordan Valley.

Then the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those deserting who had deserted to him, and the rest of the people who remained, Nebuzaradan, [the] captain of [the] guard, deported [to] Babylon.

"Go and say to Ebed-melech the Cushite, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: "Look, I [am] about to bring my words to pass against this city for evil and not for good. And they will be {before you} on that day.

{And then}, the moment of their coming to the middle of the city, then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, {along with} the men who [were] with him, slaughtered them [and threw them] to the middle of the pit.

Thus says Yahweh: "Look, waters [are] rising from [the] north, and they will become as a raging torrent, and they will overflow [the] land, and that which fills it, [the] city and those who live in it. And the people will cry out, and every inhabitant of the land will wail,

How [the] city of praise has not been abandoned! The city of my joy!

[one] runner runs to meet [another] runner, and [one] messenger to meet [another] messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured, {from end to end}.

So the city came {under siege} until [the] eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

In the fourth month, on [the] ninth [day] of the month, the famine in the city became severe and there was no food for the people of the land.

Then the city was breached, and all {the soldiers} fled and went out from the city [by] night [by the] way of [the] gate between the two walls that [are] at the garden of the king, though [the] Chaldeans [were] all around the city. And they went [in] the direction of the Jordan Valley.

And Nebuzaradan [the] captain of [the] guard deported [some] of the poor of the people, and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the deserters who deserted to the king of Babylon, along with the rest of the craftsmen.

And from the city he took one high official who was chief officer over {the soldiers}, and seven men of {the king's advisors} who were found in the city, and the secretary of the commander of the army who levied for military service the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.