This is a curious phrase, indeed. Jerome here seems to be quoting the Vetus Latina version of the Bible; he himself in one of his three translations of the Psalms (from the Hebrew) translates it thus:
Deus, venerunt gentes in hereditatem tuam
polluerunt templum sanctum tuum
posuerunt Hierusalem in acervis lapidum
According to Jerome, the Hebrew word lichim means a pile of stones; the Greek translation, opÅrophulakion, "indicates a lookout such as warders of the fields and orchards were accustomed to have, so that of the extensive city, only a cottage was left." (Jerome, Epist. 106)
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