Isaiah 1:8

8 Daughter Zion is deserted - like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street, Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks, like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.

Isaiah 1:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 1:8

And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in the
vineyard
The Targum is,

``after they have got in the vintage.''

A cottage in the vineyard was a booth, as the word ^F5 signifies, which was erected in the middle of the vineyard for the keeper of the vineyard to watch in night and day, that the fruit might not be hurt by birds, or stolen by thieves, and was a very, lonely place; and when the clusters of the vine were gathered, this cottage or booth was left by the keeper himself: and such it is suggested Jerusalem should be, not only stand alone, the cities all around being destroyed by the besiegers, but empty of inhabitants itself, when taken. As a lodge in a garden of cucumbers:
the Targum adds here also,

``after they have gathered them out of it.''

A lodge in a garden of cucumbers was built up for the gardener to watch in at night, that nobody came and stole away the cucumbers, and this was also a lonely place; but when the cucumbers were gathered, the gardener left his lodge entirely; and such a forsaken place would Jerusalem be at the time of its destruction; see ( Luke 19:43 Luke 19:44 ) as a besieged city;
which is in great distress, and none care to come near it, and as many as can make their escape out of it; or "as a city kept"; so Gussetius ^F6, who understands this, and all the above clauses, of some places preserved from the sword in the common desolation.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 (hkok) (wv skhnh) , Sept.
F6 (hrwun ryek) "ut urbs custodita", Gusset. Comment. Ling. Ebr. p. 529. "Observata vel observanda", Forerius.

Isaiah 1:8 In-Context

6 From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head, nothing's working right. Wounds and bruises and running sores - untended, unwashed, unbandaged.

7 Your country is laid waste, your cities burned down. Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch, reduced to rubble by barbarians.

8 Daughter Zion is deserted - like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street, Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks, like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.

9 If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn't left us a few survivors, we'd be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.

10 "Listen to my Message, you Sodom-schooled leaders. Receive God's revelation, you Gomorrah-schooled people.