Caravans ¹  turn aside from their routes; they go ²  into the wasteland ³  and perish. ⁴ 

Lambs ¹  will graze as if in their pastures, amid the ruins the rich sojourners will graze. ² 

“I looked at the land and saw ¹  that it was an empty wasteland. ²  I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished.

This whole area ¹  will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.’ ² 

Do not listen to them. Be subject to the king of Babylon. Then you ¹  will continue to live. Why should this city be made a pile of rubble?’” ² 

ב (Bet) He has made my mortal skin ¹  waste away; he has broken my bones.

I for my part ¹  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ²  You will sow your seed in vain because ³  your enemies will eat it. ⁴ 

From the ends of the earth we ¹  hear songs – the Just One is majestic. ²  But I ³  say, “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! I’m doomed! Deceivers deceive, deceivers thoroughly deceive!” ⁴ 

“‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of ¹  their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ ²  iniquities which are with them.

Have mercy on me, for I am in distress! My eyes grow dim ¹  from suffering. ²  I have lost my strength. ³ 

Night and day it will burn; ¹  its smoke will ascend continually. Generation after generation it will be a wasteland and no one will ever pass through it again.

In unison give a joyful shout, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the Lord consoles his people; he protects ¹  Jerusalem.

I see ¹  one destruction after another taking place, so that the whole land lies in ruins. I see our ²  tents suddenly destroyed, their ³  curtains torn down in a mere instant. ⁴ 

They will lay it waste. It will lie parched ¹  and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste. But no one living in it will pay any heed. ² 

Then they will know that I am the Lord when I turn the land into a desolate ruin because of all the abominable deeds they have committed.’ ¹ 

I will multiply your people ¹  – the whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities will be populated and the ruins rebuilt.

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: In the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will populate the cities and the ruins will be rebuilt.

Jesus ¹  also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who was informed of accusations ²  that his manager ³  was wasting ⁴  his assets.

When they were all satisfied, Jesus ¹  said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces that are left over, so that nothing is wasted.”

Certainly the Lord will console Zion; he will console all her ruins. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the Garden of the Lord. Happiness and joy will be restored to ¹  her, thanksgiving and the sound of music.