They will be desolate among desolate lands, and their cities will be among ruined cities.

They will say, “This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; the ruined, desolate, and destroyed cities are now fortified and inhabited.”

Your altars will be ruined and your incense altars will be broken. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols. ¹ 

because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity. ¹ 

All the inhabitants of the coastlands are shocked at you, and their kings are horribly afraid – their faces are troubled.

All who know you among the peoples are shocked at you; you have become terrified and will be no more.’”

I will desolate Pathros, I will ignite a fire in Zoan, and I will execute judgments on Thebes.

The desolate land will be plowed, instead of being desolate in the sight of everyone who passes by.

I will set my face against that person and will make him an object lesson and a byword ¹  and will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

I declared them to be defiled because of their sacrifices ¹  – they caused all their first born to pass through the fire ²  – so that I would devastate them, so that they will know that I am the Lord.’ ³ 

I will dry up the waterways and hand the land over to ¹  evil men. I will make the land and everything in it desolate by the hand of foreigners. I, the Lord, have spoken!

I will shock many peoples with you, and their kings will shiver with horror because of you. When I brandish my sword before them, every moment each one will tremble for his life, on the day of your fall.

When I turn the land of Egypt into desolation and the land is destitute of everything that fills it, when I strike all those who live in it, then they will know that I am the Lord.’

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.

Then you will know that I, the Lord, have heard all the insults you spoke against the mountains of Israel, saying, “They are desolate, they have been given to us for food.”

Then the nations which remain around you will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruins and replanted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken – and I will do it!’

I came to the exiles at Tel Abib, ¹  who lived by the Kebar River. ²  I sat dumbfounded among them there, where they were living, for seven days. ³ 

Say to the Ammonites, ‘Hear the word of the sovereign Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says: You said “Aha!” about my sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and about the house of Judah when they went into exile.

All the princes of the sea will vacate ¹  their thrones. They will remove their robes and strip off their embroidered clothes; they will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground; they will tremble continually and be shocked at what has happened to you. ² 

I will turn the land of Egypt into a desolation in the midst of desolate lands; for forty years her cities will lie desolate in the midst of ruined cities. I will scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse them among foreign countries.