Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” ¹ 

he lived in ruined towns ¹  and in houses where ²  no one lives, where they are ready to crumble into heaps. ³ 

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

Our holy temple, our pride and joy, ¹  the place where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire; all our prized possessions have been destroyed. ² 

I looked and saw that the fruitful land had become a desert and that all of the cities had been laid in ruins. The Lord had brought this all about because of his blazing anger. ¹ 

who fulfills the oracles of his prophetic servants ¹  and brings to pass the announcements ²  of his messengers, who says about Jerusalem, ³  ‘She will be inhabited,’ and about the towns of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt, her ruins I will raise up,’

Like a lion that has come up from its lair ¹  the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. ²  He is coming out to lay your land waste. Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.

“I destroyed ¹  nations; their walled cities ²  are in ruins. I turned their streets into ruins; no one passes through them. Their cities are desolate; ³  no one lives there. ⁴ 

This temple will become a heap of ruins; ¹  everyone who passes by it will be shocked and will hiss out their scorn, ²  saying, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’

Therefore, because of you, ¹  Zion will be plowed up like ²  a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the Temple Mount ³  will become a hill overgrown with brush! ⁴ 

A person’s folly ¹  subverts ²  his way, and ³  his heart rages ⁴  against the Lord.

Although we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our servitude. He has extended kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, in that he has revived us ¹  to restore the temple of our God and to raise ²  up its ruins and to give us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem. ³ 

Like lions his enemies roar victoriously over him; they raise their voices in triumph. ¹  They have laid his land waste; his cities have been burned down and deserted. ² 

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

I am like an owl ¹  in the wilderness; I am like a screech owl ²  among the ruins. ³ 

“The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹  says, ‘You have seen all the disaster I brought on Jerusalem ²  and all the towns of Judah. Indeed, they now lie in ruins and are deserted. ³ 

For I solemnly swear,” ¹  says the Lord, “that Bozrah ²  will become a pile of ruins. It will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ³  All the towns around it will lie in ruins forever.”

A total ruin I will make it! ¹  It will come to an end when the one arrives to whom I have assigned judgment.’ ² 

“‘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.

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