'Desolate' in the Bible

and your altars will become deserted and your pillars for sun-worship will be smashed in pieces; and I will throw down your slain in front of your idols [that cannot bring them back to life].

Everywhere you live, the cities will become waste and the high places will become deserted, so that your altars may bear their guilt and become deserted, your idols may be broken and destroyed, your incense altars [for sun-worship] may be cut down, and your works may be blotted out.

And I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land a more desolate waste than the wilderness toward Diblah [the Moabite city], throughout all the places where they live; and they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.”’”

“If I were to cause predatory beasts to pass through the land and they ravaged it and depopulated it of children, and it became desolate so that no one would pass through because of the predators,

though these three men were in the land, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they could not save either their sons or their daughters. They alone would be saved, but the land would be desolate (ruined, deserted).

I will make the land desolate (ruined, deserted), because they have acted unfaithfully [through their idolatry],’ says the Lord God.”

and I pronounced them unclean because of their offerings [to their idols], in that they made all their firstborn pass through the fire [as pagan sacrifices], so that I might make them desolate, in order that they might know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.”’

And say to the Ammonites, ‘Hear the word of the Lord God, for thus says the Lord God, “Because you said, ‘Aha!’ against My sanctuary when it was profaned and against the land of Israel when it was made desolate and against the house of Judah when they went into exile,

therefore thus says the Lord God, “I will also stretch out My hand against Edom and I will cut off and destroy man and beast. I will make it desolate; from Teman even to Dedan they will fall by the sword.

“Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gateway of the people is broken; she is open to me. I will be filled, now that she is a desolate waste,’

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 great waters cover you,

then I will bring you down with those who descend into the pit (the place of the dead), to the people of old, and I will make you [Tyre] live in the depths of the earth, like the ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set glory and splendor in the land of the living.

“And I will make the rivers [of the Nile delta] dryAnd sell the land into the hands of evil men;I will make the land desolateAnd all that is in it,By the hand of strangers. I the Lord have spoken.”

“I will make Pathros desolate,Set fire to ZoanAnd execute judgments and punishments on Thebes.

“When I make the land of Egypt desolate,And the country is stripped and deprived of all that which filled it,When I strike all those who live in it,Then they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.

And I will make the land [of Israel] a desolation and a ruin, and her pride in her power will be brought to an end; and the mountains of Israel will be so deserted that no one will pass through.

“I will destroy your citiesAnd you will become a wasteland.Then you shall know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.

Then you will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord, and that I have heard all your scornful speeches which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, ‘They have been made a wasteland; they have been given to us as food.’

As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so I will do to you; you will be a desolate waste, O Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it. Then they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.”’

Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, to the desolate ruins and to the deserted cities which have become prey and a mockery to the rest of the nations which surround you,

The desolate land will be cultivated instead of being a desolation in the sight of everyone who passes by.

Then they will say, ‘This land that was deserted and desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste, desolate, and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.’

Then the nations that are left around you will know that I the Lord have rebuilt the ruined places and planted that which was desolate. I the Lord have spoken, and will do it.”

to take spoil and seize plunder, to turn your hand against the ruins which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world [Israel].’