Bible Strands
Isaiah 64:10
Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses Yahweh directly, following a plea for mercy in the preceding verse and preceding a lament over the burned temple. The declaration describes the present ruined condition of Judah’s sacred urban centers.
The words — The Hebrew מִדְבָּר (midbar) appears twice, literally meaning "wilderness" or "wasteland," applied to Zion and Jerusalem. The verb הָיָה (hayah) denotes a completed state of becoming or being.
The thread — The desolation of Zion and Jerusalem reappears in Isaiah 1:7 and 2 Kings 25:9, which record Babylonian destruction of Judah’s cities and temple. Luke 21:24 later references the prolonged subjugation of the city.
Why it lands — The text states that formerly sacred urban centers have literally become wilderness and desolation. It demands recognition that covenant blessings are withdrawn when holy places are reduced to ruins.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 1:7 Your land is desolate; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your fields before you—a desolation demolished by strangers.
- Luke 21:24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
- 2 Kings 25:9 He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.
- 2 Chronicles 36:19 Then the Chaldeans set fire to the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the palaces and destroyed every article of value.
- Psalms 79:1 A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
- Lamentations 1:1 How lonely lies the city, once so full of people! She who was great among the nations has become a widow. The princess of the provinces has become a slave.
- Lamentations 2:4 He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.
- Lamentations 5:18 because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.
- Daniel 9:26 Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.
- Daniel 12:7 And the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by Him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, and times, and half a time. When the power of the holy people has finally been shattered, all these things will be completed.”