And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.
He knew their desolate palaces - i:e., claimed as his own their palaces, which he then proceeded to "desolate." The Hebrew literally means widows; hence, widowed palaces (Isaiah 13:22, "desolate houses and ... pleasant palaces"). Vatablus (whom Fairbairn follows) explains it, 'He knew (carnally) the widows of those whom he devoured' (Ezekiel 19:6). But thus the metaphor and the literal reality would be blended-the lion being represented as knowing widows. The reality, however, often elsewhere thus breaks through the vail.
The land was desolate, and the fullness thereof - all that it contained: its inhabitants.