34 Bible Verses about Empty Cities

Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel; so they left the city open and unguarded and they pursued Israel.

“A lion has left his lair,
And a destroyer of nations is on his way.
He has gone out from his place
To desolate your land;
Your cities will be in ruins
Without an inhabitant.

“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
A haunt and dwelling place of jackals;
And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

Behold, I am going to command [the Chaldeans who rule Babylon],’ says the Lord, ‘and I will bring them back to this city; and they will fight against it and take it and set it on fire. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.’”

Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord saying, ‘This house will be like Shiloh [after the ark of the Lord had been taken by our enemies] and this city [Jerusalem] will be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people were gathered around Jeremiah in the [outer area of the] house of the Lord.

“Thus says the Lord, ‘Yet again there will be heard in this place of which you say, “It is a [desolate] waste, without man and without animal”—even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal—

Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,

“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
And houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,

In that day the strong cities of Aram and Israel will be like deserted places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the children of Israel;
And the land will be a desolation.

For thus says the Lord in regard to the house of the king of Judah:

“You are [as valuable] to Me as [the green pastures of] Gilead [east of the Jordan]
Or as the [plentiful] summit of Lebanon [west of the Jordan],
Yet most certainly [if you will not listen to Me] I will make you a wilderness,
And uninhabited cities.

“The cities of Aroer [east of the Jordan] are deserted;
They will be [only a refuge] for flocks to lie down in,
And there will be no one to make them afraid.

“Give a gravestone to Moab,
For she will fall into ruins;
Her cities (pastures, farms) will be desolate,
Without anyone to live in them.

Babylon will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will the shepherds let their sheep lie down there.

For out of the north a nation (Media) has come against her which will make her land desolate, and no one will live there. They have fled, they have gone away—both man and animal.

“Because of the wrath of the Lord she will not be inhabited
But she will be completely desolate;
Everyone who goes by Babylon will be appalled
And will hiss (mock) at all her wounds and plagues.

“As when God overthrew Sodom
And Gomorrah and their neighboring cities,” says the Lord,
“So no man will live there;
Nor shall any son of man live there.”

The land trembles and writhes [in pain and sorrow],
For the purposes of the Lord against Babylon stand,
To make the land of Babylon
A desolation without inhabitants.

“Babylon will become a heap [of ruins], a haunt and dwelling place of jackals,
An object of horror (an astonishing desolation) and a hissing [of scorn and amazement], without inhabitants.

“Therefore wild beasts of the desert will live there [in Babylon] with the jackals;
The ostriches also will live there,
And it will never again be inhabited [with people]
Or lived in from generation to generation.

and say, ‘You, O Lord, have promised concerning this place to cut it off and destroy it, so that there shall be nothing living in it, neither man nor animal, but it will be perpetually desolate.’

“Her cities have become an astonishing desolation and an object of horror,
A parched land and a desert,
A land in which no one lives,
And through which no son of man passes.

“Why has the renowned city not been deserted,
The city of My joy!

How solitary and lonely sits the city [Jerusalem]
That was [once] full of people!
How like a widow she has become.
She who was great among the nations!
The princess among the provinces,
Has become a forced laborer!

For thus says the Lord God, “When I make you a desolate city, like the cities which are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you and great waters cover you,

Every city runs away at the sound of the horsemen and archers.
They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks;
Every city is deserted,
And no man lives in them.

For the fortified city is isolated,
A settlement deserted and abandoned like the desert;
There the calf will graze,
And there it will lie down and feed on its branches.

For the palace has been abandoned, the populated city deserted;
The hill [of the city] and the watchtower have become caves [for wild animals] forever,
A delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks,

They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; and I will scrape her dust and debris from her and make her as bare as [the top of] a rock.

I will make you [Tyre] a bare rock; you will be a dry place on which to spread nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken,” says the Lord God.

then I will bring you down with those who descend into the pit (the place of the dead), to the people of old, and I will make you [Tyre] live in the depths of the earth, like the ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set glory and splendor in the land of the living.

I will make you an everlasting desolation and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.

“The young lions have roared at him,
They have made their voices heard and roared loudly.
And they have made his land a waste;
His cities have been destroyed and are burned ruins, without inhabitant.

For [this is the fate of the Philistines:] Gaza will be abandoned
And Ashkelon a desolation;
[The people of] Ashdod will be driven out at noon [in broad daylight]
And Ekron will be uprooted and destroyed.

“I [the Lord] have cut off and destroyed nations [as a warning to Judah];
Their corner towers (battlements) are in ruins.
I have made their streets desolate
So that no one passes by;
Their cities are destroyed
So that there is no man, there is no inhabitant.

Ashkelon will see it and fear;
Gaza will writhe in pain,
And Ekron, for her hope and expectation, has been ruined.
The king will perish from Gaza,
And Ashkelon will not be inhabited.