Isaiah 32:14

¹² Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines,

¹³ and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers— even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.

For the palace will be forsaken, the busy city abandoned. The hill and the watchtower will become caves forever— the delight of wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks—

¹⁵ until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high. Then the desert will be an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest.

¹⁶ Then justice will inhabit the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in the fertile field.

This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: For the palace will be forsaken, the busy city abandoned. The hill and the watchtower will become caves forever— the delight of wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks—
KJV: Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
WEB: For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks,
ASV: For the palace shall be forsaken; the populous city shall be deserted; the hill and the watch-tower shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
DARBY: For the palace shall be deserted, the multitude of the city shall be forsaken; hill and watchtower shall be caves for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
BLB: For the palace will be forsaken, the clamor of the city will be forsaken, [and] the citadel and watchtower will become as dens even to forever—the joy of wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks—

ÅB: For palasset er forlatt, svermen i byen er borte; haug[^1] og vakttårn er blitt til huler for evige tider, til fryd for villesler, til beite for buskap -
OTB: For palasset vil bli forlatt, den travle byen øde; høyde og vakttårn vil bli huler for alltid, en glede for ville esler, en beitemark for flokker,
B1930: For palasset er forlatt, svermen i byen er borte; haug og vakttårn er blitt til huler for evige tider, til fryd for villesler, til beite for buskap - / < Ofel-haugen i Jerusalem; 2KR 27, 3. NEH 3, 26 fg.>

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Isaiah 24:12
The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble.
Read in context
Isaiah 27:10
For 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.
Read in context
Isaiah 25:2
Indeed, You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin. The fortress of strangers is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.
Read in context
Isaiah 24:10
The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry.
Read in context
Psalms 104:11
They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Read in context
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.
Read in context
Isaiah 34:11–17
The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.
Read in context
Isaiah 24:1–3
Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—
Read in context