The deserted town has been broken down; every house has been shut up from entering. There is an outcry in the streets for want of wine. All rejoicing has passed away; the exultation of the land has departed. In the city an astonishing condition has been left behind; the gate has been crushed to a mere rubble heap.”​—Isaiah 24:7-12.

There will be no happy sounds in the desolated ruins of Jerusalem, with its gate “crushed to a mere rubble heap” and its houses “shut up,” so that no one can enter. What grim prospects for inhabitants of a land that by nature has been so fertile!