Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageFor the fortified city sits forsaken, a deserted homestead abandoned to the wilderness; there the calf grazes, there it rests — and consumes her branches one by one.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GFor the fortified city sits desolate—a dwelling cast off and forsaken like a wilderness; there a calf grazes, there it lies down and strips her branches bare.
KJV
King James VersionYet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleFor the fortified city lies deserted—a homestead abandoned, a wilderness forsaken. There the calves graze, and there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.
Footnotes
The identity of the 'fortified city' is debated — most likely a hostile enemy capital (possibly Samaria, or a representative city of the nations opposed to YHWH), not Jerusalem, whose restoration is the chapter's goal. Desolation so complete that livestock wander its ruins undisturbed was the ancient world's ultimate image of civilisational collapse: a city measured by its human density now home only to a grazing *egel* (calf). *Se'ifeha* ('her branches') may refer to the city's outlying settlements, or metaphorically to her branching power structures. FOG uses 'strips her branches bare' to capture the thoroughness of consumption; FOG Message adds 'one by one' to echo the individual gathering of v.12 in contrast.
