“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted;

He humbles princes; the kings of the earth regard him as awesome.

for every high tower, for every fortified wall,

You counted the houses in Jerusalem, and demolished houses so you could have material to reinforce the wall.

When you gather the grapes of your vineyard you must not do so a second time; they should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow.

He appointed judges throughout the land and in each of the fortified cities of Judah.

‘Call on me in prayer and I will answer you. I will show you great and mysterious things which you still do not know about.’

If grape pickers came to pick your grapes, would they not leave a few grapes behind? If robbers came at night, would they not pillage only what they needed?

a day of trumpet blasts and battle cries. Judgment will fall on the fortified cities and the high corner towers.

You must not gather in the aftergrowth of your harvest and you must not pick the grapes of your unpruned vines; the land must have a year of complete rest.

That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines.

But the inhabitants are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.

All of these cities were fortified by high walls, gates, and locking bars; in addition there were a great many open villages.

Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications.

They went out to the field, harvested their grapes, squeezed out the juice, and celebrated. They came to the temple of their god and ate, drank, and cursed Abimelech.

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

Certainly you must have heard! Long ago I worked it out, In ancient times I planned it; and now I am bringing it to pass. The plan is this: Fortified cities will crash into heaps of ruins.

He placed troops in all of Judah’s fortified cities and posted garrisons throughout the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had seized.

After these faithful deeds were accomplished, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah. He besieged the fortified cities, intending to seize them.

Indeed, you have made the city into a heap of rubble, the fortified town into a heap of ruins; the fortress of foreigners is no longer a city, it will never be rebuilt.