Isaiah 1:7

7 Your country has been devastated, and your cities have been burned to the ground. While you look on, foreigners take over your land and bring everything to ruin.

Isaiah 1:7 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 1:7

Your country [is] desolate
Or "shall be"; this is either a declaration in proper terms of what is before figuratively expressed, or rather a prophecy of what would be their case on account of transgressions; and which had its accomplishment partly in the Babylonish captivity, and fully in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans; when not only their city and temple, called their house, ( Matthew 23:38 ) , were left unto them desolate, but the whole land; and they were carried captive, and scattered among the nations, where they have been ever since: your cities [are,
or shall be, burned with fire;
as, Jerusalem has been, and other cities in Judea, ( Matthew 22:7 ) your land, strangers devour it in your presence;
before their eyes, and it would not be in their power to prevent it; meaning either the Babylonians or the Romans, or both, and especially the latter, who were strangers and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel: and [it is] desolate, as overthrown by strangers;
who ravage, plunder, and destroy all they meet with, and spare nothing, not intending to settle there, as those who are near do, when they conquer a neighbouring nation. Some think this prophecy was delivered in the times of Ahaz, and refers to the desolation in his time, ( 2 Chronicles 28:17-19 ) but rather, as Joel and Amos prophesied before Isaiah, he may refer to those desolating judgments, they speak of, by the locusts, caterpillars, and fire, ( Joel 1:4 Joel 1:10-12 Joel 1:17-20 ) ( Amos 4:6 Amos 4:11 ) but to consider the words as a prediction of what should be in after times seems best; and so the Arabic version reads the words, "your land shall be desolate, your cities shall be burnt with fire, and your country strangers shall devour before you"; or shall be as overthrown by strangers, being overflown with a flood or storm of rain; so Abendana ^F4.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 As if it was (Mrz) , which signifies a flood, or overflowing of water, Hab. iii. 10. to which sense Aben Ezra inclines; so Schultens in Job xxiv. 8.

Isaiah 1:7 In-Context

5 Why do you keep on rebelling? Do you want to be punished even more? Israel, your head is already covered with wounds, and your heart and mind are sick.

6 From head to foot there is not a healthy spot on your body. You are covered with bruises and sores and open wounds. Your wounds have not been cleaned or bandaged. No medicine has been put on them.

7 Your country has been devastated, and your cities have been burned to the ground. While you look on, foreigners take over your land and bring everything to ruin.

8 Jerusalem alone is left, a city under siege - as defenseless as a guard's hut in a vineyard or a shed in a cucumber field.

9 If the Lord Almighty had not let some of the people survive, Jerusalem would have been totally destroyed, just as Sodom and Gomorrah were.