¹⁴ The palace and the city will be deserted,
    and busy towns will be empty.
Wild donkeys will frolic and flocks will graze
    in the empty forts^[a] and watchtowers

11 Open your doors, Lebanon,
    so that fire may devour your cedar forests.

¹⁰ “My people have forgotten how to do right,”
    says the Lord.
“Their fortresses are filled with wealth
    taken by theft and violence.
¹¹ Therefore,” says the Sovereign Lord,
    “an enemy is coming!
He will surround them and shatter their defenses.
    Then he will plunder all their fortresses.”

⁵ So I will send down fire on Judah,
    and all the fortresses of Jerusalem will be destroyed.”

¹⁴ Israel has forgotten its Maker and built great palaces,
    and Judah has fortified its cities.
Therefore, I will send down fire on their cities
    and will burn up their fortresses.”

²¹ For death has crept in through our windows
    and has entered our mansions.
It has killed off the flower of our youth:
    Children no longer play in the streets,
    and young men no longer gather in the squares.

³ God himself is in Jerusalem’s towers,
    revealing himself as its defender.