Lebo Hamath and the valley of Arabah were located on the northernmost border of Israel and the southernmost border of Israel respectively. Our God’s point then is this: when I, in punishment for your materialism (and all that comes with it like pride, self security, etc.), send a foreign nation to oppress you, then there will simply be no place in the land at all where you will find escape from this punishment.
Actually, there is a way in which you could state this stronger yet—but our gracious God reserves that stronger expression for the other side of the coin! Psalm 103:12 (NIV), as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Not simply as far as Lebo Hamath is from the valley of the Arabah
but as far as the east is from the west.
That is how far God’s forgiveness goes when we confess our sins and pray to him for forgiveness—also his forgiveness when we confess our sin of materialism!
14 “For behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD, the God of hosts; “and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of the Arabah.”