No human foot will pass through it, and no animal’s foot will pass through it; it will be uninhabited for forty years.

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

I will make you pass under ¹  the shepherd’s staff, ²  and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

“I will make you desolate and an object of scorn among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by.

Now the coastlands will tremble on the day of your fall; the coastlands by the sea will be terrified by your passing.’ ¹ 

I will turn Mount Seir into a desolate ruin; ¹  I will cut off ²  from it the one who passes through or returns.

“Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel, ‘The days pass slowly, and every vision fails’?

“‘I passed by you and saw you kicking around helplessly in your blood. I said to you as you lay there in your blood, “Live!” I said to you as you lay there in your blood, “Live!” ¹ 

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.

“Or suppose I were to bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through the land,’ and I were to kill both people and animals.

“‘But you trusted in your beauty and capitalized on your fame by becoming a prostitute. You offered your sexual favors to every man who passed by so that your beauty ¹  became his.

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 

For they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and their sons, whom they bore to me, ¹  they have passed through the fire as food to their idols. ² 

“‘Then I passed by you and watched you, noticing ¹  that you had reached the age for love. ²  I spread my cloak ³  over you and covered your nakedness. I swore a solemn oath to you and entered into a marriage covenant with you, declares the sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: None of my words will be delayed any longer! The word I speak will come to pass, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

When you present your sacrifices ¹  – when you make your sons pass through the fire – you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Will I allow you to seek me, ²  O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will not allow you to seek me! ³ 

“Suppose I were to send wild animals through the land and kill its children, leaving it desolate, without travelers due to the wild animals.

you slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. ¹ 

They will designate men to scout continually ¹  through the land, burying those who remain on the surface of the ground, ²  in order to cleanse it. They will search for seven full months.

I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ¹  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ²  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”