23 Heb “As for your land, before you foreigners are devouring it.”
24 Heb “and [there is] devastation like an overthrow by foreigners.” The comparative preposition ךְּ (ké, “like, as”) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the land has all the earmarks of a destructive foreign invasion because that is what has indeed happened. One could paraphrase, “it is desolate as it can only be when foreigners destroy.” On this use of the preposition in general, see §118.x. Many also prefer to emend “foreigners” here to “Sodom,” though there is no external attestation for such a reading in the or ancient versions. Such an emendation finds support from the following context (vv. 9–10) and usage of the preceding noun מַהְפֵּכָה (mahpekhah, “overthrow”). In its five other uses, this noun is associated with the destruction of Sodom. If one accepts the emendation, then one might translate, “the devastation resembles the destruction of Sodom.”

In other versions

Your country lies desolate;

your cities are burned with fire;

in your very presence

foreigners devour your land;

it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.

Your country is desolate,

your cities burned with fire;

your fields are being stripped by foreigners

right before you,

laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.

Your land is desolate,

your cities burned down;

foreigners devour your fields

right in front of you—

a desolation, like a place demolished by foreigners.

Your country lies in ruins,

and your towns are burned.

Foreigners plunder your fields before your eyes

and destroy everything they see.

Your country is desolate,

your cities are burned with fire;

As for your land, aliens are devouring it in your presence,

and it is desolate, like devastation by foreigners.

Your country is desolate,

Your cities are burned with fire:

Your land, strangers devour it in your presence,

And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

Public Domain