And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Parallel translations
- WEB The cities that are inhabited will be laid waste, and the land will be a desolation; then you will know that I am Yahweh.”’”
- BSB The inhabited cities will be laid waste, and the land will become desolate. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
- NKJV Then the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall become desolate; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”
- NASB The inhabited cities will be in ruins, and the land will be a desolation. So you will know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”
- NLT The cities will be destroyed and the farmland made desolate. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The inhabited cities will be ruined and the land made desolate, so that they will know He is the LORD.
Overview
The widespread devastation will leave no doubt about who has acted and why. Once again the goal of judgment is recognition of the LORD's sovereign reality. Ruin itself becomes a witness that God's warnings were true.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Jer 4:7The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
- Isa 7:23–24And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.
- Jer 25:9Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
- Isa 3:26And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
- Ezek 15:6Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
- Dan 9:17Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
- Jer 19:11And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
- Jer 12:10–12Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
- Jer 4:23–29I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
- Ezek 15:8And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD.
- Isa 24:12In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
- Jer 16:9For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
- Lam 5:18Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
- Jer 24:8–10And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:
- Isa 64:10–11Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
- Isa 24:3The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
- Jer 34:22Behold, I will command, saith the LORD, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant.
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