Isaiah 1:7-9

Your country is desolate,
    your cities are burned with fire;
strangers devour your land
    in your presence;
    and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
The daughter of Zion is left
    like a shelter in a vineyard,
like a hut in a field of melons,
    like a besieged city.
Unless the Lord of Hosts
    had left to us a very small remnant,
we would have been as Sodom;
    we would have been like Gomorrah.
Isaiah 1:7-9 Modern English Version (MEV)
 
We learn from Albert Barnes, in his Notes on the Bible, that:
 
Your country is desolate - This is the literal statement of what he had just affirmed by a figure. In this there was much art. The figure Isa_1:6 was striking. The resemblance between a man severely beaten, and entirely livid and sore, and a land perfectly desolate, was so impressive as to arrest the attention. This had been threatened as one of the curses which should attend disobedience; Lev_26:33:
 
And I will scatter you among the heathen,
And will draw out a sword after you:
And your land shall be desolate,
And your cities waste.
 
Compare Isa_1:31; Deu_28:49-52. It is not certain, or agreed among expositors, to what time the prophet refers in this passage. Some have supposed that he refers to the time of Ahaz, and to the calamities which came upon the nation during his reign; 2Ch_28:5-8. But the probability is, that this refers to the time of Uzziah; see the Analysis of the chapter. The reign of Uzziah was indeed prosperous; 2 Chr. 26. But it is to be remembered that the land had been ravaged just before, under the reigns of Joash and Amaziah, by the kings of Syria and Israel; 2Ki_14:8-14; 2 Chr. 24; 25; and it is by no means probable that it had recovered in the time of Uzziah. It was lying under the effect of the former desolation, and not improbably the enemies of the Jews were even then hovering around it, and possibly still in the very midst of it. The kingdom was going to decay, and the reign of Uzziah gave it only a temporary prosperity.
 
Is desolate - Hebrew: “Is desolation.” שׁממה shemâmâh. This is a Hebrew mode of emphatic expression, denoting that the desolation was so universal that the land might be said to be entirely in ruins.
 
Your land - That is, the fruit, or productions of the land. Foreigners consume all that it produces.
 
Strangers - זרים zâryı̂m, from זור zûr, to be alienated, or estranged, Isa_1:4. It is applied to foreigners, that is, those who were not Israelites, Exo_30:33; and is often used to denote an enemy, a foe, a barbarian; Psa_109:11:
 
Let the extortioner catch all that he hath,
And let the strangers plunder his labor.
 
Ezk_11:9; Ezk_28:10; Ezk_30:12; Hos_7:9; Hos_8:7. The word refers here particularly to the Syrians.
 
Devour it - Consume its provisions.
 
In your presence - This is a circumstance that greatly heightens the calamity, that they were compelled to look on and witness the desolation, without being able to prevent it.
 
As overthrown by strangers - זרים כמהפכה kemahpêkâh zâryı̂m - from הפך hâphak, to turn, to overturn, to destroy as a city; Gen_19:21-25; Deu_29:22. It refers to the changes which an invading foe produces in a nation, where everything is subverted; where cities are destroyed, walls are thrown down, and fields and vineyards laid waste. The land was as if an invading army had passed through it, and completely overturned everything. Lowth proposes to read this, ‘as if destroyed by an inundation;’ but without authority. The desolation caused by the ravages of foreigners, at a time when the nations were barbarous, was the highest possible image of distress, and the prophet dwells on it, though with some appearance of repetition.
 
And the daughter of Zion - Zion, or Sion, was the name of one of the hills on which the city of Jerusalem was built. On this hill formerly stood the city of the Jebusites, and when David took it from them he transferred to it his court, and it was called the city of David, or the holy hill. It was in the southern part of the city. As Zion became the residence of the court, and was the most important part of the city, the name was often used to denote the city itself, and is often applied to the whole of Jerusalem. The phrase ‘daughter of Zion’ here means Zion itself, or Jerusalem. The name daughter is given to it by a personification in accordance with a common custom in Eastern writers, by which beautiful towns and cities are likened to young females. The name mother is also applied in the same way. Perhaps the custom arose from the fact that when a city was built, towns and villages would spring up round it - and the first would be called the mother-city (hence, the word metropolis). The expression was also employed as an image of beauty, from a fancied resemblance between a beautiful town and a beautiful and well-dressed woman. Thus Psa_45:13, the phrase daughter of Tyre, means Tyre itself; Psa_137:8, daughter of Babylon, that is, Babylon; Isa_37:22, ‘The virgin, the daughter of Zion;’ Jer_46:2; Isa_23:12; Jer_14:17; Num_21:23, Num_21:32, (Hebrew); Jdg_11:26. Is left. נותרה nôtherâh. The word used here denotes left as a part or remnant is left - not left entire, or complete, but in a weakened or divided state.
 
As a cottage - literally, “a shade,” or “shelter” - כסכה kesûkkâh, a temporary habitation erected in vineyards to give shelter to the grape gatherers, and to those who were uppointed to watch the vineyard to guard it from depredations; compare the note at Mat_21:33. The following passage from Mr. Jowett’s ‘Christian Researches,’ describing what he himself saw, will throw light on this verse. ‘Extensive fields of ripe melons and cucumbers adorned the sides of the river (the Nile). They grew in such abundance that the sailors freely helped themselves. Some guard, however, is placed upon them. Occasionally, but at long and desolate intervals, we may observe a little hut, made of reeds, just capable of containing one man; being in fact little more than a fence against a north wind. In these I have observed, sometimes, a poor old man, perhaps lame, protecting the property. It exactly illustrates Isa_1:8.’ ‘Gardens were often probably unfenced, and formerly, as now, esculent vegetables were planted in some fertile spot in the open field. A custom prevails in Hindostan, as travelers inform us, of planting in the commencement of the rainy season, in the extensive plains, an abundance of melons, cucumbers, gourds, etc. In the center of the field is an artificial mound with a hut on the top, just large enough to shelter a person from the storm and the heat;’ Bib. Dic. A.S.U. The sketch in the book will convey a clear idea of such a cottage. Such a cottage would be designed only for a temporary habitation. So Jerusalem seemed to be left amidst the surrounding desolation as a temporary abode, soon to be destroyed.
 
As a lodge - The word lodge here properly denotes a place for passing the night, but it means also a temporary abode. It was erected to afford a shelter to those who guarded the enclosure from thieves, or from jackals, and small foxes. ‘The jackal,’ says Hasselquist, ‘is a species of mustela, which is very common in Palestine, especially during the vintage, and often destroys whole vineyards, and gardens of cucumbers.’
 
A garden of cucumbers - The word cucumbers here probably includes every thing of the melon kind, as well as the cucumber. They are in great request in that region on account of their cooling qualities, and are produced in great abundance and perfection. These things are particularly mentioned among the luxuries which the Israelites enjoyed in Egypt, and for which they sighed when they were in the wilderness. Num_11:5: ‘We remember - the cucumbers and the melons,’ etc. The cucumber which is produced in Egypt and Palestine is large - usually a foot in length, soft, tender, sweet, and easy of digestion (Gesenius), and being of a cooling nature, was especially delicious in their hot climate. The meaning here is, that Jerusalem seemed to be left as a temporary, lonely habitation, soon to be forsaken and destroyed.
 
As a besieged city - נצוּרה כעיר ke‛ı̂yr netsôrâh. Lowth. ‘As a city taken by siege.’ Noyes. “‘So is the delivered city.’ This translation was first proposed by Arnoldi of Marburg. It avoids the incongruity of comparing a city with a city, and requires no alteration of the text except a change of the vowel points. According to this translation, the meaning will be, that all things round about the city lay desolate, like the withered vines of a cucumber garden around the watchman’s hut; in other words, that the city alone stood safe amidst the ruins caused by the enemy, like the hut in a gathered garden of cucumber.” Noyes. According to this interpretation, the word נצוּרה netsôrâh is derived not from צור tsûr, to besiege, to press, to straiten; but from נצר nâtsar, to preserve, keep, defend; compare Ezk_6:12. The Hebrew will bear this translation; and the concinnity of the comparison will thus be preserved. I rather prefer, however, the common interpretation, as being more obviously the sense of the Hebrew, and as being sufficiently in accordance with the design of the prophet. The idea then is, that of a city straitened by a siege, yet standing as a temporary habitation, while all the country around was lying in ruins. Jerusalem, alone preserved amidst the desolation spreading throughout the land, will resemble a temporary lodge in the garden - itself soon to be removed or destroyed. The essential idea, whatever translation is adopted, is that of the solitude, loneliness, and temporary continuance of even Jerusalem, while all around was involved in desolation and ruin.
 
Except ... - It is owing entirely to the mercy of God, that we are not like Sodom. The prophet traces this not to the goodness of the nation, not to any power or merit of theirs, but solely to the mercy of God. This passage the apostle Paul has used in an argument to establish the doctrine of divine sovereignty in the salvation of people; see the note at Rom_9:29.
 
The Lord - Hebrew Yahweh. Note Isa_1:2.
 
Of hosts - צבאות tsebâ'ôth - the word sometimes translated “Sabaoth”; Rom_9:29; Jas_5:4. The word means literally armies or military hosts. It is applied, however, to the angels which surround the throne of God; 1Ki_22:19; 2Ch_18:18; Psa_103:21; and to the stars or constellations that appear to be marshalled in the sky; Jer_33:22; Isa_40:26. This host, or the “host of heaven,” was frequently an object of idolatrous worship; Deu_4:19; Deu_17:3; 2Ki_17:16. God is called Yahweh of hosts because he is at the head of all these armies, as their leader and commander; he marshals and directs them - as a general does the army under his command. ‘This,’ says Gesenius, ‘is the most common name of God in Isaiah, and in Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Malachi. It represents him as the ruler of the hosts of heaven, that is, the angels and the stars. Sometimes, but less frequently, we meet with the appellation Yahweh, God of hosts. Hence, some suppose the expression Yahweh of hosts to be elliptical. But it is not a correct assertion that Yahweh, as a proper name, admits of no genitive. But such relations and adjuncts as depend upon the genitive, often depend upon proper names. So in Arabic, one is called Rebiah of the poor in reference to his liability.’ The name is given here, because to save any portion of a nation so wicked implied the exercise of the same power as that by which he controlled the hosts of heaven.
 
Remnant - A small part - that which is left. It means here, that God had spared a portion of the nation, so that they were not entirely overthrown.
 
We should have been as Sodom ... - This does not refer to the character of the people, but to their destiny. If God had not interposed to save them they would have been overwhelmed entirely as Sodom was; compare Gen_19:24-25.