For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk on it.
Parallel translations
- KJV Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
- BSB because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.
- NKJV Because of Mount Zion which is desolate, With foxes walking about on it.
- NASB Because of Mount Zion which lies desolate, Jackals prowl in it.
- NLT For Jerusalem is empty and desolate, a place haunted by jackals.
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
Mount Zion, once holy and full of worship, now lies desolate with wild foxes roaming it. The ruin of God's dwelling place is the deepest wound.
Overview
Zion, the site of the temple and the place of God's presence, is so abandoned that jackals or foxes prowl its rubble—a picture of utter devastation. The loss of the sanctuary represents the loss of access to God's worship, the heart of Israel's life. This desolation deepens the longing for a temple that cannot be destroyed, fulfilled in Christ and His people, the living temple of God (John 2:19-21).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Mic 3:12Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
- Jer 9:11“I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
- Jer 26:9Why have you prophesied in Yahweh’s name, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant?’” All the people were crowded around Jeremiah in Yahweh’s house.
- 1 Kgs 9:7–8then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of my sight; and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
- Isa 32:13–14Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.
- Lam 2:8–9Yahweh has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He has stretched out the line, he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; He has made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.
- Jer 17:3My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.
- Ps 74:2–3Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived.
- Jer 52:13He burned Yahweh’s house, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 5:18 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.