²⁷ This is what the Lord says:
“The whole country will be ruined,
    but I will not completely destroy the land.
²⁸ So the people in the land will cry for the dead.
    The sky will grow dark.
I have spoken and will not change.
    I have made a decision, and I will not change my mind.”

²⁹ The people of Judah will hear the sound
    of the horse soldiers and the archers,
    and the people will run away!
Some of them will hide in caves;^[a]
    some will hide in the bushes;
    some will climb up into the rocks.
All the cities of Judah will be empty.
    No one will live in them.