Your land is devastated, your cities burned with fire. Right before your eyes your crops are being destroyed by foreign invaders. ¹  They leave behind devastation and destruction. ² 

I will reestablish honest judges as in former times, wise advisers as in earlier days. ¹  Then you will be called, ‘The Just City, Faithful Town.’”

I replied, “How long, sovereign master?” He said, “Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated, and houses are uninhabited, and the land is ruined and devastated,

Prepare to execute ¹  his sons for the sins their ancestors have committed. ²  They must not rise up and take possession of the earth, or fill the surface of the world with cities.” ³ 

Wail, O city gate! Cry out, O city! Melt with fear, ¹  all you Philistines! For out of the north comes a cloud of smoke, and there are no stragglers in its ranks. ² 

At that time ¹  their fortified cities will be like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, ²  which they abandoned because of the Israelites; there will be desolation.

The noisy city is full of raucous sounds; the town is filled with revelry. ¹  Your slain were not cut down by the sword; they did not die in battle. ² 

At that time ¹  this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city! The Lord’s ²  deliverance, like walls and a rampart, makes it secure. ³ 

For the fortified city ¹  is left alone; it is a deserted settlement and abandoned like the desert. Calves ²  graze there; they lie down there and eat its branches bare. ³ 

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 

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, ¹  King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”

¹ Certainly you must have heard! ²  Long ago I worked it out, in ancient times I planned ³  it, and now I am bringing it to pass. The plan is this: Fortified cities will crash into heaps of ruins. ⁴ 

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,’

It is me – I stir him up and commission him; ¹  I will make all his ways level. He will rebuild my city; he will send my exiled people home, but not for a price or a bribe,” says the Lord who commands armies.

The children of your oppressors will come bowing to you; all who treated you with disrespect will bow down at your feet. They will call you, ‘The City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ ¹ 

But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them save you when you are in trouble. The sad fact is that ¹  you have as many gods as you have towns, Judah.

“Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master. ¹  If you do, ²  I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.

The Lord said, ¹  “Announce ²  this in Judah and proclaim it in Jerusalem: ³  ‘Sound the trumpet ⁴  throughout the land!’ Shout out loudly, ‘Gather together! Let us flee into the fortified cities!’

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.