Gileadi’s modernization of the language here makes more sense to modern readers:
In that day every plot of ground with a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of currency shall be briars and thorns. (Gileadi, p. 109.)
The removal of population is such that there are none to tend the fields of the rich, and they become overrun with briars and thorns. Thus we have the ironic contrast between verses 22 and 23, where an abundance of food will exist in the midst of general poverty and humiliation.
“For Briers and Thorns”
Anthropological note: The cultivated fields will return to a wild state, and therefore become a location for hunters. Rather than the civilized society maintaining their agricultural ways, the society will become more reliant on hunting. The impact of this statement may be missed on modern society. In an agrarian society, the social structure was maintained by the control over the sources of food, and in particular the agricultural lands. The land signified not only food, but the organization of the society. With the reversion of cultivated lands to wild, the clear message to Israel is one in which the quality of life is diminished (in spite of the abundance of food) because in addition to the physical devastation, the social order is also disrupted.