(Covenant of Christ) 2 Nephi 9:2
And He said: Until their cities have been destroyed and left desolate, and their houses abandoned, and the land deserted, until the Lord has driven everyone far away, and there are many abandoned places throughout the land.
(Covenant of Christ) 3 Nephi 4:9
The voice said: You people of these great cities that have fallen, who are descendants of Jacob, who belong to the house of Israel; you people of the house of Israel, how often I’ve gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and how often I’ve guided you! ... But if not, O house of Israel, your dwelling places will become desolate until the time when the covenant to your fathers is kept.
(Covenant of Christ) 3 Nephi 10:2
You’ll need a bigger tent, let your communities spread out; keep growing, get longer tent cords and stronger poles, for you’ll gather from the south and the north, and your posterity will adopt the Gentiles and fill the desolated cities again.
(Old Covenants) Leviticus 13:13
And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. ... And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
And he dwells in desolate cities and in houses which no man inhabits, which are ready to become heaps.
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire. ... Your land, strangers devour it in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. ... And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
In my ears says the Lord of Hosts, Truly many houses shall be desolate, and great and fair cities without inhabitant.
And he said, Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land is utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away; for there shall be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate; therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. ... The city of confusion is broken down; every house is shut up, that no man may come in. ... In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
Yet the fortified city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness.
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers, yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city, because the palaces shall be forsaken, the multitude of the houses shall be left desolate, the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever — a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks, until the spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness is a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted for a forest. ... And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places when it shall hail, coming down on the forest, and the city shall be low in a low place.
Sing, O barren, you that did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you that did not travail with child; for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says the Lord. ... Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations; spare not, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, for you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left, and your seed shall inherit the gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
You shall no more be termed Forsaken, neither shall your land anymore be termed Desolate, but you shall be called Delightful, and your land Union; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. ... And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord; and you shall be called sought-out, a city not forsaken.
Declare in Judah and publish in Jerusalem, and say, Blow the trumpet in the land, cry, gather together and say, Assemble yourselves and let us go into the fortified cities. ... He is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
I beheld the earth, and behold, it was empty and desolate; and the heavens, and they had no light. ... I beheld, and behold, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord and by his fierce anger.
For thus has the Lord said: The whole land shall be desolate, yet will I not make a full end. ... The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen, they shall go into thickets and climb up upon the rocks; every city shall be forsaken and not a man dwell therein.
This is the city to be visited, she is full of oppression in her midst. ... Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited.
Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall be desolate.
And I will make Jerusalem heaps and a den of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah desolate without an inhabitant.
Behold, the noise of the report has come and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate and a den of dragons.
And I will make this city desolate and a hissing, everyone that passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. ... Then shall you break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with you, and shall say unto them, Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel that cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Topheth until there be no place to bury. ... Thus will I do unto this place, says the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Topheth.
Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? ... Then spoke the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die, for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears. ... Then spoke Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. ... But know for certain that if you put me to death, you shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof, for truly the Lord has sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.
And now therefore thus says the Lord the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: Behold, I will gather them out of all countries to which I have driven them — in my anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath — and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely, and they shall be my people and I will be their God. ... And fields shall be bought in this land whereof you say, It is desolate without man or beast, it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. ... Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south; for I will cause their captivity to turn back, says the Lord.
Thus says the Lord: Again there shall be heard in this place — which you say shall be desolate, without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast — the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of Hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endures for ever unto them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Again in this place which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. ... In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that tells them, says the Lord.