They will be like a shrub ¹  in the desert. They will not experience good things even when they happen. It will be as though they were growing in the desert, in a salt land where no one can live.

Send rams as tribute to the ruler of the land, ¹  from Sela in the desert ²  to the hill of Daughter Zion.

Baalath, Tadmor in the wilderness, ¹ 

So they went away by themselves in a boat to some remote place.

Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. ¹ 

For victory does not come from the east or west, or from the wilderness. ¹ 

Then the lame will leap like a deer, the mute tongue will shout for joy; for water will flow ¹  in the desert, streams in the wilderness. ² 

I will make cedars, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees grow in the wilderness; I will make evergreens, firs, and cypresses grow together in the desert.

They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions; he makes water flow out of a rock for them; he splits open a rock and water flows out.’ ¹ 

They will hear, ‘Run! Save yourselves! Even if you must be like a lonely shrub in the desert!’ ¹ 

How deserted will that once-famous city ¹  be, that city that was once filled with ²  joy! ³ 

the white owl, the scops owl, the osprey,

the jackdaw, ¹  the carrion vulture, the cormorant,

The Lord ¹  found him ²  in a desolate land, in an empty wasteland where animals howl. ³  He continually guarded him ⁴  and taught him; ⁵  he continually protected him ⁶  like the pupil ⁷  of his eye.

But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born ¹  will be disgraced. Indeed, ²  Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert.

Then an angel of the Lord ¹  said to Philip, ²  “Get up and go south ³  on the road that goes down from Jerusalem ⁴  to Gaza.” (This is a desert ⁵  road.) ⁶ 

and rejected Esau. ¹  I turned Esau’s ²  mountains into a deserted wasteland ³  and gave his territory ⁴  to the wild jackals.”

In the east they settled as far as the entrance to the desert that stretches to the Euphrates River, for their cattle had increased in numbers in the land of Gilead.

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