Here is a message about Moab: Indeed, in a night it is devastated, Ar of Moab is destroyed! Indeed, in a night it is devastated, Kir of Moab is destroyed!

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 

So my anger and my wrath were poured out and burned like a fire through the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. That is why they have become the desolate ruins that they are today.’

Like the sheep for offerings, like the sheep of Jerusalem ¹  during her appointed feasts, so will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

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 

That day will be a day of God’s anger, ¹  a day of distress and hardship, a day of devastation and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and dark skies,

You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza ¹  and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin ²  forever – it must never be rebuilt again.

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,’

I said, ¹  “Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened? ²  Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it? ³  Why does the land lie in ruins? Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”

But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice ¹  is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When ²  the river burst against that house, ³  it collapsed immediately, and was utterly destroyed!” ⁴ 

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 

They gave money to the craftsmen and builders to buy chiseled stone and wood for the braces and rafters of the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into disrepair. ¹ 

Let destruction take them by surprise! ¹  Let the net they hid catch them! Let them fall into destruction! ² 

Those who seek my life try to entrap me; ¹  those who want to harm me speak destructive words; all day long they say deceitful things.

The Beloved to Her Lover: Catch ¹  the foxes ²  for us, the little foxes, ³  that ruin the vineyards ⁴  – for our vineyard is in bloom.

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

Look! The enemy is approaching like gathering clouds. ¹  The roar of his chariots is like that of a whirlwind. ²  His horses move more swiftly than eagles.” I cry out, ³  “We are doomed, ⁴  for we will be destroyed!”

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 

So I went to Perath and dug up ¹  the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found ²  that they were ruined; they were good for nothing.

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