'City' in the Bible

“Now you son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem.

Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.

One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all around the city, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will unsheathe a sword behind them.

The sword is outside and the plague and the famine are within. He who is in the field will die by the sword; famine and the plague will also consume those in the city.

‘Make the chain, for the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence.

Then He cried out in my hearing with a loud voice saying, “Draw near, O executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.”

The Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.”

But to the others He said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare.

And He said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” Thus they went out and struck down the people in the city.

Then He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with blood and the city is full of perversion; for they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see!’

And He spoke to the man clothed in linen and said, “Enter between the whirling wheels under the cherubim and fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And he entered in my sight.

He said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and give evil advice in this city,

who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This city is the pot and we are the flesh.’

You have multiplied your slain in this city, filling its streets with them.”

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, “Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of the city are the flesh and this city is the pot; but I will bring you out of it.

“And I will bring you out of the midst of the city and deliver you into the hands of strangers and execute judgments against you.

This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be flesh in the midst of it, but I will judge you to the border of Israel.

The glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood over the mountain which is east of the city.

He plucked off the topmost of its young twigs and brought it to a land of merchants; he set it in a city of traders.

“As for you, son of man, make two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them will go out of one land. And make a signpost; make it at the head of the way to the city.

“And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations.

You shall say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “A city shedding blood in her midst, so that her time will come, and that makes idols, contrary to her interest, for defilement!

‘Therefore, thus says the Lord God,“Woe to the bloody city,To the pot in which there is rustAnd whose rust has not gone out of it!Take out of it piece after piece,Without making a choice.

‘Therefore, thus says the Lord God,“Woe to the bloody city!I also will make the pile great.

Because of the multitude of his horses, the dust raised by them will cover you; your walls will shake at the noise of cavalry and wagons and chariots when he enters your gates as men enter a city that is breached.

They will take up a lamentation over you and say to you,‘How you have perished, O inhabited one,From the seas, O renowned city,Which was mighty on the sea,She and her inhabitants,Who imposed her terrorOn all her inhabitants!

For thus says the Lord God, “When I make you a desolate city, like the cities which are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you and the great waters cover you,

Now in the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth of the tenth month, the refugees from Jerusalem came to me, saying, “The city has been taken.”

And even the name of the city will be Hamonah. So they will cleanse the land.”’

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was taken, on that same day the hand of the Lord was upon me and He brought me there.

In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, and on it to the south there was a structure like a city.

And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when He came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.

“You shall give the city possession of an area 5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long, alongside the allotment of the holy portion; it shall be for the whole house of Israel.

“The prince shall have land on either side of the holy allotment and the property of the city, adjacent to the holy allotment and the property of the city, on the west side toward the west and on the east side toward the east, and in length comparable to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border.

“The remainder, 5,000 cubits in width and 25,000 in length, shall be for common use for the city, for dwellings and for open spaces; and the city shall be in its midst.

The city shall have open spaces: on the north 250 cubits, on the south 250 cubits, on the east 250 cubits, and on the west 250 cubits.

The remainder of the length alongside the holy allotment shall be 10,000 cubits toward the east and 10,000 toward the west; and it shall be alongside the holy allotment. And its produce shall be food for the workers of the city.

The workers of the city, out of all the tribes of Israel, shall cultivate it.

The whole allotment shall be 25,000 by 25,000 cubits; you shall set apart the holy allotment, a square, with the property of the city.

“The remainder shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy allotment and of the property of the city; in front of the 25,000 cubits of the allotment toward the east border and westward in front of the 25,000 toward the west border, alongside the portions, it shall be for the prince. And the holy allotment and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the middle of it.

Exclusive of the property of the Levites and the property of the city, which are in the middle of that which belongs to the prince, everything between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin shall be for the prince.

“These are the exits of the city: on the north side, 4,500 cubits by measurement,

shall be the gates of the city, named for the tribes of Israel, three gates toward the north: the gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one.

The city shall be 18,000 cubits round about; and the name of the city from that day shall be, ‘The Lord is there.’”