Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
Parallel translations
- WEB For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk on 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 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.
- Jer 9:11And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
- Jer 26:9Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.
- 1 Kgs 9:7–8Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:
- Isa 32:13–14Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
- Lam 2:8–9The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.
- Jer 17:3O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
- Ps 74:2–3Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
- Jer 52:13And burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he 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
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