Deuteronomy 29:23

29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ¹ 

Isaiah 1:7-8

1:7 Your land is devastated,

your cities burned with fire.

Right before your eyes your crops

are being destroyed by foreign invaders. ² 

They leave behind devastation and destruction. ³ 

1:8 Daughter Zion ⁴  is left isolated,

like a hut in a vineyard,

or a shelter in a cucumber field;

she is a besieged city. ⁵ 

Isaiah 5:6

5:6 I will make it a wasteland;

no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, ⁶ 

and thorns and briers will grow there.

I will order the clouds

not to drop any rain on it.

Isaiah 5:9

5:9 The Lord who commands armies told me this: ⁷ 

“Many houses will certainly become desolate,

large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. ⁸ 

Isaiah 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,

Isaiah 24:1

The Lord Will Judge the Earth

24:1 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth

and leave it in ruins;

he will mar its surface

and scatter its inhabitants.

Isaiah 32:13-14

32:13 Mourn ⁹  over the land of my people,

which is overgrown with thorns and briers,

and over all the once-happy houses ¹⁰ 

in the city filled with revelry. ¹¹ 

32:14 For the fortress is neglected;

the once-crowded ¹²  city is abandoned.

Hill ¹³  and watchtower

are permanently uninhabited. ¹⁴ 

Wild donkeys love to go there,

and flocks graze there. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 64:10

64:10 Your chosen ¹⁶  cities have become a desert;

Zion has become a desert,

Jerusalem ¹⁷  is a desolate ruin.

Jeremiah 9:11

9:11 The Lord said, ¹⁸ 

“I will make Jerusalem ¹⁹  a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ²⁰ 

I will destroy the towns of Judah

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

Jeremiah 25:11

25:11 This whole area ²¹  will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.’ ²² 

Jeremiah 25:18

25:18 I made Jerusalem ²³  and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. ²⁴  I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object ²⁵  of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. ²⁶  Such is already becoming the case! ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 25:38

25:38 The Lord is like a lion who has left his lair. ²⁸ 

So their lands will certainly ²⁹  be laid waste

by the warfare of the oppressive nation ³⁰ 

and by the fierce anger of the Lord.”

Jeremiah 44:2

44:2 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ³¹  says, ‘You have seen all the disaster I brought on Jerusalem ³²  and all the towns of Judah. Indeed, they now lie in ruins and are deserted. ³³ 

Jeremiah 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. ³⁴ 

Lamentations 5:18

5:18 For wild animals ³⁵  are prowling over Mount Zion,

which lies desolate.

Ezekiel 33:28-29

33:28 I will turn the land into a desolate ruin; her confident pride will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so desolate no one will pass through them. 33:29 Then they will know that I am the Lord when I turn the land into a desolate ruin because of all the abominable deeds they have committed.’ ³⁶ 

Daniel 9:2

9:2 in the first year of his reign ³⁷  I, Daniel, came to understand from the sacred books ³⁸  that, according to the word of the LORD ³⁹  disclosed to the prophet Jeremiah, the years for the fulfilling of the desolation of Jerusalem ⁴⁰  were seventy in number.

Daniel 9:18

9:18 Listen attentively, ⁴¹  my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins ⁴²  and the city called by your name. ⁴³  For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, ⁴⁴  but because your compassion is abundant.

Habakkuk 3:17

3:17 When ⁴⁵  the fig tree does not bud,

and there are no grapes on the vines;

when the olive trees do not produce, ⁴⁶ 

and the fields yield no crops; ⁴⁷ 

when the sheep disappear ⁴⁸  from the pen,

and there are no cattle in the stalls,

Luke 21:20

The Desolation of Jerusalem

21:20 “But when you see Jerusalem ⁴⁹  surrounded ⁵⁰  by armies, then know that its ⁵¹  desolation ⁵²  has come near.

[29:23]  ¹ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

[1:7]  ² tn Heb “As for your land, before you foreigners are devouring it.”

[1:7]  ³ tn Heb “and [there is] devastation like an overthrow by foreigners.” The comparative preposition כְּ (kÿ, “like, as”) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the land has all the earmarks of a destructive foreign invasion because that is what has indeed happened. One could paraphrase, “it is desolate as it can only be when foreigners destroy.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x. Many also prefer to emend “foreigners” here to “Sodom,” though there is no external attestation for such a reading in the mss or ancient versions. Such an emendation finds support from the following context (vv. 9-10) and usage of the preceding noun מַהְפֵּכָה (mahpekhah, “overthrow”). In its five other uses, this noun is associated with the destruction of Sodom. If one accepts the emendation, then one might translate, “the devastation resembles the destruction of Sodom.”

[1:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “daughter of Zion” (so KJV, NASB, NIV). The genitive is appositional, identifying precisely which daughter is in view. By picturing Zion as a daughter, the prophet emphasizes her helplessness and vulnerability before the enemy.

[1:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “like a city besieged.” Unlike the preceding two comparisons, which are purely metaphorical, this third one identifies the reality of Israel’s condition. In this case the comparative preposition, as in v. 7b, has the force, “in every way like,” indicating that all the earmarks of a siege are visible because that is indeed what is taking place. The verb form in MT is Qal passive participle of נָצַר (natsar, “guard”), but since this verb is not often used of a siege (see BDB 666 s.v. I נָצַר), some prefer to repoint the form as a Niphal participle from II צוּר (tsur, “besiege”). However, the latter is not attested elsewhere in the Niphal (see BDB 848 s.v. II צוּר).

[5:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “it will not be pruned or hoed” (so NASB); ASV and NRSV both similar.

[5:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”

[5:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”

[32:13]  ⁹ tn “Mourn” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 12-13 are one long sentence.

[32:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “indeed, over all the houses of joy.” It is not certain if this refers to individual homes or to places where parties and celebrations were held.

[32:13]  ¹¹ sn This same phrase is used in 22:2.

[32:14]  ¹² tn Or “noisy” (NAB, NIV, NCV).

[32:14]  ¹³ tn Hebrew עֹפֶל (’ofel), probably refers here to a specific area within the city of Jerusalem. See HALOT 861 s.v. II עֹפֶל.

[32:14]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text has בְעַד מְעָרוֹת (vÿ’ad mÿ’arot). The force of בְעַד, which usually means “behind, through, round about,” or “for the benefit of,” is uncertain here. HALOT 616 s.v. *מְעָרָה takes מְעָרוֹת (mÿ’arot) as a homonym of “cave” and define it here as “cleared field.” Despite these lexical problems, the general point of the statement seems clear – the city will be uninhabited.

[32:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the joy of wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks.”

[64:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “holy” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV, NLT); NIV “sacred.”

[64:10]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:11]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.”

[25:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “All this land.”

[25:11]  ²² 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.)

[25:18]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:18]  ²⁴ tn The words “I made” and “drink it” are not in the text. The text from v. 18 to v. 26 contains a list of the nations that Jeremiah “made drink it.” The words are supplied in the translation here and at the beginning of v. 19 for the sake of clarity. See also the note on v. 26.

[25:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in order to make them a ruin, an object of…” The sentence is broken up and the antecedents are made specific for the sake of clarity and English style.

[25:18]  ²⁶ tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.

[25:18]  ²⁷ tn Heb “as it is today.” This phrase would obviously be more appropriate after all these things had happened as is the case in 44:6, 23 where the verbs referring to these conditions are past. Some see this phrase as a marginal gloss added after the tragedies of 597 b.c. or 586 b.c. However, it may refer here to the beginning stages where Judah has already suffered the loss of Josiah, of its freedom, of some of its temple treasures, and of some of its leaders (Dan 1:1-3. The different date for Jehoiakim there is due to the different method of counting the king’s first year; the third year there is the same as the fourth year in 25:1).

[25:38]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Like a lion he has left his lair.”

[25:38]  ²⁹ tn This is a way of rendering the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) which is probably here for emphasis rather than indicating cause (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 1.e and compare usage in Jer 22:22).

[25:38]  ³⁰ tc Heb “by the sword of the oppressors.” The reading here follows a number of Hebrew mss and the Greek version. The majority of Hebrew mss read “the anger of the oppressor.” The reading “the sword of the oppressors” is supported also by the parallel use of this phrase in Jer 46:16; 50:16. The error in the MT may be explained by confusion with the following line which has the same beginning combination (מִפְּנֵי חֲרוֹן [mippÿne kharon] confused for מִפְּנֵי חֶרֶב [mippÿne kherev]). This reading is also supported by the Targum, the Aramaic paraphrase of the OT. According to BDB 413 s.v. יָנָה Qal the feminine singular participle (הַיּוֹנָה, hayyonah) is functioning as a collective in this idiom (see GKC 394 §122.s for this phenomenon).

[44:2]  ³¹ 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]  ³² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[44:2]  ³³ tn Heb “Behold, they are in ruins this day and there is no one living in them.”

[44:22]  ³⁴ 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.

[5:18]  ³⁵ tn Heb “jackals.” The term “jackals” is a synecdoche of species (= jackals) for general (= wild animals).

[33:29]  ³⁶ sn The judgments of vv. 27-29 echo the judgments of Lev 26:22, 25.

[9:2]  ³⁷ tc This phrase, repeated from v. 1, is absent in Theodotion.

[9:2]  ³⁸ tn The Hebrew text has “books”; the word “sacred” has been added in the translation to clarify that it is Scriptures that are referred to.

[9:2]  ³⁹ sn The tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters which constitute the divine Name, YHWH) appears eight times in this chapter, and nowhere else in the book of Daniel.

[9:2]  ⁴⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:18]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “turn your ear.”

[9:18]  ⁴² tn Heb “desolations.” The term refers here to the ruined condition of Judah’s towns.

[9:18]  ⁴³ tn Heb “over which your name is called.” Cf. v. 19. This expression implies that God is the owner of his city, Jerusalem. Note the use of the idiom in 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1; Amos 9:12.

[9:18]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “praying our supplications before you.”

[3:17]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “though.”

[3:17]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “the produce of the olive disappoints.”

[3:17]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “food.”

[3:17]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “are cut off.”

[21:20]  ⁴⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[21:20]  ⁵⁰ sn See Luke 19:41-44. This passage refers to the events associated with the fall of Jerusalem, when the city is surrounded by armies.

[21:20]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “her,” referring to the city of Jerusalem (the name “Jerusalem” in Greek is a feminine noun).

[21:20]  ⁵² sn The phrase its desolation is a reference to the fall of the city, which is the only antecedent present in Luke’s account. The parallels to this in Matt 24:15 and Mark 13:14 refer to the temple’s desolation, though Matthew’s allusion is clearer. They focus on the parallel events of the end, not on the short term realization in a.d. 70. The entire passage has a prophetic “two events in one” typology, where the near term destruction (a.d. 70) is like the end. So the evangelists could choose to focus on the near time realization (Luke) or on its long term fulfillment, which mirrors it (Matthew, Mark).