For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built. A city "The city" - Nineveh, Babylon, Ar, Moab, or any other strong fortress possessed by the enemies of the people of God.
For the first מעיר meir, of a city, the Syriac and Vulgate read העיר hair, the city; the Septuagint and Chaldee read ערים arim, cities, in the plural, transposing the letters. After the second מעיר meir, a MS. adds לגל lagol, for a heap.
A palace of strangers "The palace of the proud ones" - For זרים zarim, strangers, MS. Bodl. and another read זדים zedim, the proud: so likewise the Septuagint; for they render it ασεβων here, and in Isaiah 25:5, as they do in some other places: see Deuteronomy 18:20, Deuteronomy 18:22. Another MS. reads צרים tsarim, adversaries; which also makes a good sense. But זרים zarim, strangers, and זדים zedim, the proud, are often confounded by the great similitude of the letters ד daleth and ר resh. See Malachi 3:15; Malachi 4:1; Psalms 19:14, in the Septuagint; and Psalms 54:5, where the Chaldee reads זדים zedim, compared with Psalms 86:16.