²⁷ For this is what the Lord says:
“The entire land will be devastated,
    but I won’t completely destroy^[a] it.
²⁸ Because of this, the land will mourn,
    and the heavens above will be dark.
Because I have spoken and decided,
    I won’t turn back from doing it.”

²⁹ At the sound of the horseman and the archer
    the entire city flees.
Its residents go into the thickets and climb among the rocks.
    Every city is abandoned, and no one lives in them.