I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, or the glad celebration of brides and grooms throughout the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For the whole land will become a desolate wasteland.”

They will lay it waste. It will lie parched ¹  and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste. But no one living in it will pay any heed. ² 

The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning. The people of Ashkelon will be struck dumb. How long will you gash yourselves to show your sorrow, ¹  you who remain of Philistia’s power? ² 

They will answer, ‘Moab is disgraced, for it has fallen! Wail and cry out in mourning! Announce along the Arnon River that Moab has been destroyed.’

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.”

Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there. Ostriches ¹  will dwell in it too. ²  But no people will ever live there again. No one will dwell there for all time to come. ³ 

All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. There is no breath in any of those idols.

No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone. No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house. For you will lie desolate forever,” ¹  says the Lord. ² 

When their appetites are all stirred up, ¹  I will set out a banquet for them. I will make them drunk so that they will pass out, ²  they will fall asleep forever, they will never wake up,” ³  says the Lord. ⁴ 

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 

You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it.

“‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” ¹  when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, ²  they coat it with whitewash.

those prophets of Israel who would prophesy about Jerusalem ¹  and would see visions of peace for it, when there was no peace,” declares the sovereign Lord.’

Therefore you will no longer see false visions and practice divination. I will rescue my people from your power, and you ¹  will know that I am the Lord.’”

“‘I passed by you and saw you kicking around helplessly in your blood. I said to you as you lay there in your blood, “Live!” I said to you as you lay there in your blood, “Live!” ¹ 

But those in Jerusalem ¹  will view it as a false omen. They have sworn solemn oaths, ²  but the king of Babylon ³  will accuse them of violations ⁴  in order to seize them. ⁵ 

Slanderous men shed blood within you. ¹  Those who live within you eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains; ²  they commit obscene acts among you. ³ 

I will send a plague into the city ¹  and bloodshed into its streets; the slain will fall within it, by the sword that attacks it ²  from every side. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Their ¹  graves are located in the remote slopes of the pit. ²  Her assembly is around her grave, all of them struck down by the sword, those who spread terror in the land of the living.

They will say, “This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; the ruined, desolate, and destroyed cities are now fortified and inhabited.”