‘Therefore such wealth as they have accumulated,
And that which they have laid up,
They will carry away,
To the Brook of the Willows.'
Their only hope is escape across the border. This is the sad sight of a stream of refugees carrying all their earthly possessions as they stumble on their way to the south hoping to find refuge. The Brook of the Willows (or ‘Ravine of the Poplars') is probably the Brook Zered on the southern border (compare Amos 6:14 - ‘the Brook of the Arabah').