“ ‘Haven’t you heard? I did this long ago. I planned it in the distant past. Now I make it happen so that you will turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.
Terror and dread will fall on them. Because of the power of your arm, they will be petrified until your people pass by, O Lord, until the people you purchased pass by.
The wicked are dead. They are no longer alive. The spirits of the dead won’t rise. You have punished them, destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them.
“ ‘Haven’t you heard? I did this long ago. I planned it in the distant past. Now I make it happen so that you will turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.
“I am against you, Babylon, you destructive mountain. You have destroyed the whole earth,” declares the Lord. “I will use my power against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a scorched mountain.
Then my enemies will see this, and they will be covered with shame, because they asked me, “Where is the Lord your God?” Now I look at them. They are trampled like mud in the streets.
When the people of Israel on the other side of the valley and across the Jordan River saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities. So the Philistines came to live in these cities.