Consider its defenses! ¹  Walk through ²  its fortresses, so you can tell the next generation about it! ³ 

He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house.

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

“Woe to you, experts in the law ¹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You ²  build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves ³  of the righteous.

The God who made the world and everything in it, ¹  who is ²  Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, ³ 

The five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish ¹  said to their kinsmen, ²  “Do you realize that inside these houses are an ephod, some personal idols, a carved image, and a metal image? Decide now what you want to do.”

He named ¹  it “The Palace of the Lebanon Forest”; ²  it was 150 feet ³  long, 75 feet ⁴  wide, and 45 feet ⁵  high. It had four rows of cedar pillars and cedar beams above the pillars.

King Solomon gave King Hiram of Tyre ¹  twenty cities in the region of Galilee, because Hiram had supplied Solomon with cedars, evergreens, and all the gold he wanted.

Solomon had 4,000 stalls for his chariot horses ¹  and 12,000 horses. He kept them in assigned cities and in Jerusalem. ² 

Hezekiah was very wealthy and greatly respected. He made storehouses for his silver, gold, precious stones, spices, and all his other valuable possessions. ¹ 

and I returned to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by supplying him with a storeroom in the courts of the temple of God.

Look at the land of the Chaldeans, these people who have lost their identity! ¹  The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals. They erected their siege towers, ²  demolished ³  its fortresses, and turned it into a heap of ruins. ⁴ 

Your perpetual ruins will be rebuilt; ¹  you will reestablish the ancient foundations. You will be called, ‘The one who repairs broken walls, the one who makes the streets inhabitable again.’ ² 

You may feel as secure as a bird nesting in the cedars of Lebanon. But oh how you ¹  will groan ²  when the pains of judgment come on you. They will be like those of a woman giving birth to a baby. ³ 

I will rebuild you, my dear children Israel, ¹  so that you will once again be built up. Once again you will take up the tambourine and join in the happy throng of dancers. ² 

For I, the Lord God of Israel, have something more to say about the houses in this city and the royal buildings which have been torn down for defenses against the siege ramps and military incursions of the Babylonians: ¹ 

The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting. They will remain in their fortified cities. They will lose their strength to do battle. ¹  They will be as frightened as women. ²  The houses in her cities will be set on fire. The gates of her cities will be broken down. ³ 

ז (Zayin) The Lord ¹  rejected ²  his altar and abhorred his temple. ³  He handed over to the enemy ⁴  her palace walls; the enemy ⁵  shouted ⁶  in the Lord’s temple as if it were a feast day. ⁷ 

Israel has forgotten his Maker and built royal palaces, and Judah has built many fortified cities. But I will send fire on their cities; it will consume their royal citadels.

I will destroy both the winter and summer houses. ¹  The houses filled with ivory ²  will be ruined, the great ³  houses will be swept away.” ⁴  The Lord is speaking!