Then the prophet turns to the more distant Hazor with words of warning:—
"Flee, get you far off, dwell in hidden recesses of the land, O inhabitants of Hazor—
It is the utterance of Jehovah—
For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath counselled a counsel and purposed a purpose against you."
But then, as if this warning were a mere taunt, he renews his address to the Chaldeans and directs their attack against Hazor:—
"Arise, go up against a nation that is at ease, that dwelleth without fear—it is the utterance of Jehovah—
Which abide alone, without gates or bars"—
like the people of Laish before the Danites came, and like Sparta before the days of Epaminondas.
Possibly we are to combine these successive "utterances," and to understand that it was alike Jehovah's will that the Chaldeans should invade and lay waste Hazor, and that the unfortunate inhabitants should escape—but escape plundered and impoverished: for
"Their camels shall become a spoil,
The multitude of their cattle a prey:
I will scatter to every wind them that have the corners of their hair polled;[241]
I will bring their calamity upon them from all sides.
Hazor shall be a haunt of jackals, a desolation for ever:
No one shall dwell there,
No soul shall sojourn therein."