¹² Desolation is left in the city;
    the gates are battered into ruins.

¹² For the inhabitants of Maroth
    wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down ^(A)from the Lord
    to the gate of Jerusalem.

^9 (A)For her wound is incurable,
    and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
    to Jerusalem.

¹⁸ for Mount Zion which lies desolate;
    ^(A)jackals prowl over it.

1 ^(A)How lonely sits the city
    that was full of people!
How like ^(B)a widow has she become,
    she who was great among the nations!
She who was ^(C)a princess among the provinces
    has become ^(D)a slave.

^11 (A)I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
    ^(B)a lair of jackals,
^(C)and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
    without inhabitant.”

¹⁴ For the palace is forsaken,
    the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watchtower
    will become dens forever,
^(A)a joy of wild donkeys,
    a pasture of flocks;