I asked, "How long will it be like this, Lord?" He answered, "Until the cities are ruined and empty---until the houses are uninhabited---until the land itself is a desolate wasteland.

"When that time comes, the fine vineyards, each with a thousand vines and each worth a thousand pieces of silver, will be overgrown with thorn bushes and briers.

Thorns and thistles will grow up in all the palaces and walled towns, and jackals and owls will live in them.

He made rich soil become a salty wasteland because of the wickedness of those who lived there.

When the disaster comes and the people are scattered, the Egyptians will gather them up---gather them for burial there at Memphis! Their treasures of silver and the places where their homes once stood will be overgrown with weeds and thorn bushes.

The hilltop shrines of Aven, where the people of Israel worship idols, will be destroyed. Thorns and weeds will grow up over their altars. The people will call out to the mountains, "Hide us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"

Meanwhile, the Babylonians burned down the royal palace and the houses of the people and tore down the walls of Jerusalem.

Give her as much suffering and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. For she keeps telling herself: 'Here I sit, a queen! I am no widow, I will never know grief !'

Because of this, in one day she will be struck with plagues--- disease, grief, and famine. And she will be burned with fire, because the Lord God, who judges her, is mighty."

The whole city is in an uproar, filled with noise and excitement. Your people who died in this war did not die fighting.

The Sovereign LORD Almighty was calling you then to weep and mourn, to shave your heads and wear sackcloth.

Instead, you laughed and celebrated. You killed sheep and cattle to eat, and you drank wine. You said, "We might as well eat and drink! Tomorrow we'll be dead."