“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.”
The flight of the people: 'At the sound of the horsemen and archers every town takes to flight. Some go into the thickets; some climb up among the rocks. All the towns are deserted, and no one lives in them.' This verse depicts the panic that grips the land as the invasion advances: people flee in all directions seeking shelter, cities are abandoned. The repetition—'all the towns are deserted, and no one lives in them'—emphasizes the completeness of the exodus: the entire population is on the move, fleeing an enemy they cannot resist. Theologically, this verse conveys the social and psychological chaos of military defeat: the structures of settled society collapse, people become refugees, the land is emptied.
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