“Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me, the sovereign master ¹  has forgotten me.’

“For a short time I abandoned ¹  you, but with great compassion I will gather you.

All rebellious sinners will be shattered, ¹  those who abandon the Lord will perish.

The cities of Aroer are abandoned. ¹  They will be used for herds, which will lie down there in peace. ² 

They will be called, “The Holy People, the Ones Protected ¹  by the Lord.” You will be called, “Sought After, City Not Abandoned.”

Here is why this will be so: ¹  Before the child knows how to reject evil and choose what is right, the land ²  whose two kings you fear will be desolate. ³ 

What will you do on judgment day, ¹  when destruction arrives from a distant place? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

At that time ¹  their fortified cities will be like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, ²  which they abandoned because of the Israelites; there will be desolation.

They will all be left ¹  for the birds of the hills and the wild animals; ²  the birds will eat them during the summer, and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter.

For the fortified city ¹  is left alone; it is a deserted settlement and abandoned like the desert. Calves ²  graze there; they lie down there and eat its branches bare. ³ 

For the fortress is neglected; the once-crowded ¹  city is abandoned. Hill ²  and watchtower are permanently uninhabited. ³  Wild donkeys love to go there, and flocks graze there. ⁴ 

The oppressed and the poor look for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched from thirst. I, the Lord, will respond to their prayers; ¹  I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle ¹  and sinful people their plans. ²  They should return ³  to the Lord, and he will show mercy to them, ⁴  and to their God, for he will freely forgive them. ⁵ 

But as for you who abandon the Lord and forget about worshiping at ¹  my holy mountain, who prepare a feast for the god called ‘Fortune,’ ²  and fill up wine jugs for the god called ‘Destiny’ ³  –

¹ The sinful nation is as good as dead, ²  the people weighed down by evil deeds. They are offspring who do wrong, children ³  who do wicked things. They have abandoned the Lord, and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ⁴  They are alienated from him. ⁵ 

My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest, as one gathers up abandoned eggs, I gathered up the whole earth. There was no wing flapping, or open mouth chirping.” ¹ 

I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; ¹  I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. ²  I will turn the darkness in front of them into light, and level out the rough ground. ³  This is what I will do for them. I will not abandon them.

They seek me day after day; they want to know my requirements, ¹  like a nation that does what is right and does not reject the law of their God. They ask me for just decrees; they want to be near God.