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.

These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the Israelites in the plains of Moab along the Jordan River opposite Jericho. ¹ 

These are the commandments and the decisions that the Lord commanded the Israelites through the authority ¹  of Moses, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan River ²  opposite Jericho. ³ 

So we turned away from our relatives ¹  the descendants of Esau, the inhabitants of Seir, turning from the desert route, ²  from Elat ³  and Ezion Geber, ⁴  and traveling the way of the Moab wastelands.

Are they not across the Jordan River, ¹  toward the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal ²  near the oak ³  of Moreh?

The Israelites mourned for Moses in the deserts of Moab for thirty days; then the days of mourning for Moses ended.

So the Israelites camped in Gilgal and celebrated the Passover in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho. ¹ 

So they left and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the desert of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon.

Abner and his men went through the Arabah all that night. They crossed the Jordan River ¹  and went through the whole region of Bitron ²  and came to Mahanaim.

But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho, ¹  and his entire army deserted him.

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 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.

The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins. She has become a dry and barren desert. No one lives in those towns any more. No one even passes through them. ¹ 

But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, ¹  and his entire army deserted him.

He said to me, “These waters go out toward the eastern region and flow down into the Arabah; when they enter the Dead Sea, ¹  where the sea is stagnant, ²  the waters become fresh. ³ 

“Look! I am about to bring ¹  a nation against you, family ²  of Israel.” The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking. “They will oppress ³  you all the way from Lebo-Hamath ⁴  to the Stream of the Arabah.” ⁵ 

They brought the captives and the spoils and the plunder to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the Israelite community, to the camp on the plains ¹  of Moab, along the Jordan River ²  across from Jericho. ³ 

This is what ¹  Moses said to the assembly of Israel ²  in the Transjordanian ³  wastelands, the arid country opposite ⁴  Suph, ⁵  between ⁶  Paran ⁷  and Tophel, ⁸  Laban, ⁹  Hazeroth, and Di Zahab

Get up now, ¹  resume your journey, heading for ²  the Amorite hill country, to all its areas ³  including the arid country, ⁴  the highlands, the Shephelah, ⁵  the Negev, ⁶  and the coastal plain – all of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the Great River, that is, the Euphrates.