For the fortress is neglected; the once-crowded ¹  city is abandoned. Hill ²  and watchtower are permanently uninhabited. ³  Wild donkeys love to go there, and flocks graze there. ⁴ 

and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women ¹  and were inflamed in their passions ²  for one another. Men ³  committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Woe to them! For they have traveled down Cain’s path, ¹  and because of greed ²  have abandoned themselves ³  to ⁴  Balaam’s error; hence, ⁵  they will certainly perish ⁶  in Korah’s rebellion.

You have not abandoned your fellow Israelites ¹  this entire time, ²  right up to this very day. You have completed the task given you by the Lord your God. ³ 

I was once young, now I am old. I have never seen a godly man abandoned, or his children ¹  forced to search for food. ² 

adrift ¹  among the dead, like corpses lying in the grave, whom you remember no more, and who are cut off from your power. ² 

Daughter Zion ¹  is left isolated, like a hut in a vineyard, or a shelter in a cucumber field; she is a besieged city. ² 

The Lord answered, “This has happened because these people have rejected my laws which I gave them. They have not obeyed me or followed those laws. ¹ 

The grains of seed ¹  have shriveled beneath their shovels. ²  Storehouses have been decimated and granaries have been torn down, for the grain has dried up.

Indeed, ¹  Gaza will be deserted ²  and Ashkelon will become a heap of ruins. ³  Invaders will drive away the people of Ashdod by noon, ⁴  and Ekron will be overthrown. ⁵ 

For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, ¹ 

They abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors ¹  who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods – the gods of the nations who lived around them. They worshiped ²  them and made the Lord angry.

Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, ¹  but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster ²  overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, ³  ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

Others will then answer, ¹  ‘Because they abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors, ²  who led them out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshiped and served. ³  That is why he brought all this disaster down on them.’”

He rained hail down on their cattle, ¹  and hurled lightning bolts down on their livestock. ² 

The earth is broken in pieces, the earth is ripped to shreds, the earth shakes violently. ¹ 

You Israelites! Return to the one against whom you have so blatantly rebelled! ¹ 

“Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me, the sovereign master ¹  has forgotten me.’

and so incur judgment for breaking their former pledge. ¹ 

Elijah ¹  replied, “I have not brought disaster ²  on Israel. But you and your father’s dynasty have, by abandoning the Lord’s commandments and following the Baals.