'City' in the Bible

Thus says the Lord,“For three transgressions of Gaza [in Philistia] and for four (multiplied delinquencies)I will not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it,Because [as slave traders] they took captive the entire [Jewish] population [of defenseless Judean border villages, of which none was spared]And deported them to Edom [for the slave trade].

If a trumpet is blown in a city [warning of danger] will not the people tremble?If a disaster or misfortune occurs in a city has not the Lord caused it?

“Furthermore, I withheld the rain from youWhen there were still three months until the harvest.Then I would send rain on one city,And on another city I would not send rain;One piece of ground was rained on,While the part not rained on would dry up.

“So [the people of] two or three cities would stagger into one city to drink water,But would not be satisfied;Yet you have not returned to Me [in repentance],” says the Lord.

For thus says the Lord God,“The city which goes forth a thousand strongWill have a hundred left,And the one which goes forth a hundred strongWill have ten left to the house of Israel.”

They hate the one who reprimands [the unrighteous] in the [court held at the city] gate [regarding him as unreasonable and rejecting his reprimand],And they detest him who speaks [the truth] with integrity and honesty.

For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great (shocking, innumerable),You who distress the righteous and take bribes,And turn away from the poor in the [court of the city] gate [depriving them of justice].

Go over to Calneh [in Babylonia] and look,And from there go [north of Damascus] to the great city of Hamath;Then go down to Gath of the Philistines.Are they better than these kingdoms [of yours],Or is their territory greater than yours?

The Lord God has sworn [an oath] by Himself—the Lord God of hosts, says:“I loathe and reject the [self-centered] arrogance of Jacob (Israel),And I hate his palaces and citadels;Therefore, I shall hand over the [idolatrous] city [of Samaria] with all that it contains [to the Assyrian invaders].”

Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city [when the Assyrians capture Samaria] and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean and defiled [pagan] land, and Israel shall certainly go from its land into exile.’”