And I will make Jerusalem heaps, {and} a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. {desolate: Heb. desolation}

Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, {and} a den of dragons.

And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as {if it were of} a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. {tabernacle: or, hedge}

The earth mourneth {and} fadeth away, the world languisheth {and} fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. {the haughty...: Heb. the height of the people}

Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed {as} a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.

All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile. {to...: or, to make the soul to come again}

Thus saith the LORD; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say {shall be} desolate without man and without beast, {even} in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,

Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes {are} among the Gentiles: the law {is} no {more}; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.

They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. {commandment: Heb. mouth}

And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as {if it were of} a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. {tabernacle: or, hedge}

And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she {being} desolate shall sit upon the ground. {desolate: or, emptied: Heb. cleansed}

In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways. {travellers: Heb. walkers of paths} {byways: Heb. crooked ways}

I will gather {them that are} sorrowful for the solemn assembly, {who} are of thee, {to whom} the reproach of it {was} a burden. {reproach...: Heb. the burden upon it was reproach}

I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your {high} ways shall be desolate.

Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward. {is...: Heb. is become a removing, or, wandering}

They have heard that I sigh: {there is} none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done {it}: thou wilt bring the day {that} thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. {called: or, proclaimed}

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, {and} keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that {are} round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by.

The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn.

{That} our oxen {may be} strong to labour; {that there be} no breaking in, nor going out; that {there be} no complaining in our streets. {strong...: Heb. able to bear burdens, or, loaden with flesh}

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, {Concerning} the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim {to be} holy convocations, {even} these {are} my feasts.

Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

Yet the defenced city {shall be} desolate, {and} the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.

The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.