“I have destroyed nations; their towers were ruined. I made their streets empty so no one goes there anymore. Their cities are ruined; no one lives there at all.
Then the angel of the Lord went out and killed one hundred eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up early the next morning, they saw all the dead bodies.
Then I asked, “Lord, how long should I do this?” He answered, “Until the cities are destroyed and the people are gone, until there are no people left in the houses, until the land is destroyed and left empty.
What person is wise enough to understand these things? Is there someone who has been taught by the Lord who can explain them? Why was the land ruined? Why has it been made like an empty desert where no one goes?
How terrible it will be for you who live by the Mediterranean Sea, you Philistines! The word of the Lord is against you, Canaan, land of the Philistines. “I will destroy you so that no one will be left.”
‘I scattered them like a hurricane to other countries they did not know. This good land was left so ruined behind them that no one could live there. They had made the desired land a ruin.’ ”
The things that happened to those people are examples. They were written down to teach us, because we live in a time when all these things of the past have reached their goal.