Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
- BSB Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation.
- NKJV Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
- NASB Your holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
- NLT Your holy cities are destroyed. Zion is a wilderness; yes, Jerusalem is a desolate ruin.
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
They lament that the holy cities, including Zion and Jerusalem, have become a wilderness. It matters because it mourns the ruin that sin and judgment brought.
Overview
The prayer surveys the desolation of the once-holy cities, with Jerusalem itself laid waste. This grief reflects the devastation foreseen in the Babylonian exile. The lament over ruined holy places sharpens the longing for restoration and ultimately points to the new Jerusalem God will establish, where desolation gives way to His everlasting presence (Revelation 21:2-4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Isa 1:7Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
- Luke 21:24And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
- Lam 5:18Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
- Lam 2:4–8He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.
- Dan 9:26–27And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
- Lam 1:1–4How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!
- Rev 11:1–2And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
- 2 Kgs 25:9And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire.
- Dan 12:7And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
- Ps 79:1–7O GOD, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
- 2 Chr 36:19–21And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
- Mic 3:12Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
- Luke 21:21Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 64:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.