Yehezkiel 6:14

6:14 I will stretch out my hand against them ¹  and make the land a desolate waste from the wilderness to Riblah, ²  in all the places where they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”

Yehezkiel 12:20

12:20 The inhabited towns will be left in ruins and the land will be devastated. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Yehezkiel 15:8

15:8 I will make ³  the land desolate because they have acted unfaithfully, declares the sovereign Lord.”

Yehezkiel 36:34-35

36:34 The desolate land will be plowed, instead of being desolate in the sight of everyone who passes by. 36:35 They will say, “This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; the ruined, desolate, and destroyed cities are now fortified and inhabited.”

Yehezkiel 36:2

36:2 This is what the sovereign Lord says: The enemy has spoken against you, saying “Aha!” and, “The ancient heights ⁴  have become our property!”’

Yehezkiel 36:21

36:21 I was concerned for my holy reputation ⁵  which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they went.

Yesaya 6:11

6:11 I replied, “How long, sovereign master?” He said,

“Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated,

and houses are uninhabited,

and the land is ruined and devastated,

Yeremia 9:11

9:11 The Lord said, ⁶ 

“I will make Jerusalem ⁷  a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ⁸ 

I will destroy the towns of Judah

so that no one will be able to live in them.”

Yeremia 16:16

16:16 But for now I, the Lord, say: ⁹  “I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks. ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 25:11

25:11 This whole area ¹¹  will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.’ ¹² 

Yeremia 44:2

44:2 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹³  says, ‘You have seen all the disaster I brought on Jerusalem ¹⁴  and all the towns of Judah. Indeed, they now lie in ruins and are deserted. ¹⁵ 

Yeremia 44:6

44:6 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.’

Yeremia 44:22

44:22 Finally the Lord could no longer endure your wicked deeds and the disgusting things you did. That is why your land has become the desolate, uninhabited ruin that it is today. That is why it has become a proverbial example used in curses. ¹⁶ 

Mikha 7:13

7:13 The earth will become desolate ¹⁷ 

because of what its inhabitants have done. ¹⁸ 

Zakharia 7:13-14

7:13 “‘It then came about that just as I ¹⁹  cried out, but they would not obey, so they will cry out, but I will not listen,’ the Lord Lord who rules over all had said. 7:14 ‘Rather, I will sweep them away in a storm into all the nations they are not familiar with.’ Thus the land had become desolate because of them, with no one crossing through or returning, for they had made the fruitful ²⁰  land a waste.”

[6:14]  ¹ sn I will stretch out my hand against them is a common expression in the book of Ezekiel (14:9, 13; 16:27; 25:7; 35:3).

[6:14]  ² tc The Vulgate reads the name as “Riblah,” a city north of Damascus. The MT reads Diblah, a city otherwise unknown. The letters resh (ר) and dalet (ד) may have been confused in the Hebrew text. The town of Riblah was in the land of Hamath (2 Kgs 23:33) which represented the northern border of Israel (Ezek 47:14).

[15:8]  ³ tn The word translated “make” is the same Hebrew word translated as “provide” in v. 6.

[36:2]  ⁴ tn Or “high places.”

[36:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “name.”

[9:11]  ⁶ tn The words “the Lord said” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:11]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.”

[16:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” The Lord has been speaking; the first person has been utilized in translation to avoid a shift which might create confusion.

[16:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Behold I am about to send for many fishermen and they will catch them. And after that I will send for many hunters and they will hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the cracks in the rocks.”

[16:16]  sn The picture of rounding up the population for destruction and exile is also seen in Amos 4:2 and Hab 1:14-17.

[25:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “All this land.”

[25:11]  ¹² sn It should be noted that the text says that the nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years, not that they will lie desolate for seventy years. Though several proposals have been made for dating this period, many ignore this fact. This most likely refers to the period beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s defeat of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish in 605 b.c. and the beginning of his rule over Babylon. At this time Babylon became the dominant force in the area and continued to be so until the fall of Babylon in 538 b.c. More particularly Judah became a vassal state (cf. Jer 46:2; 2 Kgs 24:1) in 605 b.c. and was allowed to return to her homeland in 538 when Cyrus issued his edict allowing all the nations exiled by Babylon to return to their homelands. (See 2 Chr 36:21 and Ezra 1:2-4; the application there is made to Judah but the decree of Cyrus was broader.)

[44:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” Compare 7:3 and see the study note on 2:19 for explanation and translation of this title.

[44:2]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[44:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Behold, they are in ruins this day and there is no one living in them.”

[44:22]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “And/Then the Lord could no longer endure because of the evil of your deeds [and] because of the detestable things that you did and [or so] your land became a desolation and a waste and an occasion of a curse without inhabitant as this day.” The sentence has been broken up and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style, but an attempt has been made to preserve the causal and consequential connections.

[7:13]  ¹⁷ tn Or “will be ruined.”

[7:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “on account of its inhabitants, because of the fruit of their deeds.”

[7:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he.” Since the third person pronoun refers to the Lord, it has been translated as a first person pronoun (“I”) to accommodate English style, which typically does not exhibit switches between persons of pronouns in the same immediate context as Hebrew does.

[7:14]  ²⁰ tn Or “desirable”; traditionally “pleasant” (so many English versions; cf. TEV “This good land”).