The Lord in his anger has covered Zion with darkness. Its heavenly splendor he has turned into ruins. On the day of his anger he abandoned even his Temple.

I will turn your cities into ruins, destroy your places of worship, and refuse to accept your sacrifices.

But even then, when they are still in the land of their enemies, I will not completely abandon them or destroy them. That would put an end to my covenant with them, and I am the LORD their God.

God was angry when he saw it, so he rejected his people completely.

He allowed our enemies to capture the Covenant Box, the symbol of his power and glory.

Your sacred cities are like a desert; Jerusalem is a deserted ruin,

and our Temple, the sacred and beautiful place where our ancestors praised you, has been destroyed by fire. All the places we loved are in ruins.

Go to Shiloh, the first place where I chose to be worshiped, and see what I did to it because of the sins of my people Israel.

And so, what I did to Shiloh I will do to this Temple of mine, in which you trust. Here in this place that I gave to your ancestors and you, I will do the same thing that I did to Shiloh.

If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh, and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse."

"When Hezekiah was king of Judah, the prophet Micah of Moresheth told all the people that the LORD Almighty had said, 'Zion will be plowed like a field; Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.'

He burned down the Temple, the palace, and the houses of all the important people in Jerusalem;

Once they were proud of their beautiful jewels, but they used them to make disgusting idols. That is why the LORD has made their wealth repulsive to them.

I will not interfere when my treasured Temple is profaned, when robbers break into it and defile it.

to give you Israelites this message: You are proud of the strength of the Temple. You like to look at it and to visit it, but the LORD is going to profane it. And the younger members of your families who are left in Jerusalem will be killed in war.

And so, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.

"Yes," he said, "you may well look at all these. I tell you this: not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down."

Then they brought in some men to tell lies about him. "This man," they said, "is always talking against our sacred Temple and the Law of Moses.

We heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will tear down the Temple and change all the customs which have come down to us from Moses!"

Like an enemy, the Lord has destroyed Israel; He has left her forts and palaces in ruins. He has brought on the people of Judah unending sorrow.

He burned down the Temple and the city, with all its palaces and its wealth, and broke down the city wall.

and set it on fire. They will burn it down, together with the houses where people have made me angry by burning incense to Baal on the rooftops and by pouring out wine offerings to other gods.

"Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell you wonderful and marvelous things that you know nothing about.

I, the LORD, the God of Israel, say that the houses of Jerusalem and the royal palace of Judah will be torn down as a result of the siege and the attack.

Meanwhile, the Babylonians burned down the royal palace and the houses of the people and tore down the walls of Jerusalem.

I will bring the most evil nations here and let them have your homes. Your strongest men will lose their confidence when I let the nations profane the places where you worship.

So I will send fire upon Judah and burn down the fortresses of Jerusalem."

May the king judge the poor fairly; may he help the needy and defeat their oppressors.

May the king be like rain on the fields, like showers falling on the land.

His kingdom will reach from sea to sea, from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth.

The kings of Spain and of the islands will offer him gifts; the kings of Sheba and Seba will bring him offerings.

He rescues the poor who call to him, and those who are needy and neglected.

He rescues them from oppression and violence; their lives are precious to him.

May there be plenty of grain in the land; may the hills be covered with crops, as fruitful as those of Lebanon. May the cities be filled with people, like fields full of grass.

Praise the LORD, the God of Israel! He alone does these wonderful things.

This is the end of the prayers of David son of Jesse.

Walk over these total ruins; our enemies have destroyed everything in the Temple.

They looked like woodsmen cutting down trees with their axes.

They wrecked your Temple and set it on fire; they desecrated the place where you are worshiped.

"I will let foreigners rob them," says the LORD, "and lawbreakers will take all their wealth and defile it.

I will not interfere when my treasured Temple is profaned, when robbers break into it and defile it.