Isaiah 1:7
in Isaiah 1Your land is desolate; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your fields before you—a desolation demolished by strangers.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
KJV
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
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This verse in Isaiah 1
Commentary
15 notes on this verse(Verse 7) Your land is deserted; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your land before your eyes, and it is desolate like a hostile wasteland. These things were partially fulfilled under the Babylonians, with the temple being burned and Jerusalem being destroyed, when the Samaritans possessed the region of the ten tribes, and the promised land was so desolate that it was ravaged by lions.
This site's exposition
Your land is desolate
on Isaiah 1:7-9
The desolation is present, cities burned and foreigners devouring the fields while the people watch. Zion is left "like a shelter in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field." Had the LORD of Hosts not left "a few survivors," Judah would share the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
Christ ceased to be in them. The Word deserted them.… The Jews were left behind, and salvation passed to the Gentiles. God meant to spur on the Jews with envy. We contemplate God's mysterious plan, how for our salvation he rejected Israel. We ought to be careful. The Jews were rejected for our sake; on our account they were abandoned. We would deserve even greater punishment if we did nothing worthy of our adoption by God and of his mercy. In his mercy God adopted us and made us his sons [children] in Christ Jesus, to whom is glory and power for ages of ages.
(Verse 7) Your land is deserted; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your land before your eyes, and it is desolate like a hostile wasteland. These things were partially fulfilled under the Babylonians, with the temple being burned and Jerusalem being destroyed, when the Samaritans possessed the region of the ten tribes, and the promised land was so desolate that it was ravaged by lions. But a more complete and perfect description of what would happen under Roman captivity is given: when the Roman army devastated all of Judea, and the cities were burned, and their land is currently being devoured by foreigners, and the desolation of the Jews will continue until the end of the world. However, we can interpret these things tropologically about sinners who have fallen from their former holiness, after they have been handed over to contrary powers: that all their goods come to a desert: and God does not remember the former righteousness: and they are consumed by the fire of the devil; and they become food for beasts, of whom it is also written in another place: Do not give the soul confessing to you to beasts (Ps. 73, 19). (Verse 8) The daughter of Zion will be abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field. The vineyard, which is called the whole of Israel, is testified to by the Prophet in the following, saying: 'The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel; and the man of Judah, a new plant and beloved' (below chapter 5, verse 7); and in the Psalm: 'You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it' (Psalm 80:9). This vine, as long as it brought forth abundant fruits, had God as its guardian, of whom it is written: 'He does not slumber or sleep, who keeps Israel' (Psalm 121:4). […]
And concerning its desolation, and that no one should be permitted to inhabit it, there was the following prophecy by Isaiah: "Their land is desolate, their enemies consume it before them, and none of them shall dwell therein." And that it is guarded by you lest any one dwell in it, and that death is decreed against a Jew apprehended entering it, you know very well.
Isaiah is not recalling events that have happened but is announcing events in the future. The prophets customarily use fear to demonstrate the truth of what they are saying.
Isaiah lived almost [two] thousand years ago and saw Zion in a hut. The city was still standing, beautiful with public squares and clothed in honor; yet he says, "Zion shall be plowed like a field," foretelling what has been fulfilled in our day. Observe the exactness of the prophecy; for he said, "Daughter Zion will be left like a hut in a vineyard, like a shed in a melon patch." Now the place is full of melon patches.
8 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers1 voice
What therefore? Have these things not come to be? Have the things announced by you not come to fruition? Is not their land, Judah, desolate? Is the holy place not burned? Are their ways not thrown down? Are their cities not laid waste? Do strangers not devour their lands? Do the Romans not rule over their land?
The Medieval Church1 voice
37. Your land is desolate. Here he threatens punishment: and first, he sets out the judgment of the one who punishes; second, any solace of consolation, where it says, except the Lord of hosts had left us seed (Isa 1:9). He sets out a threefold …
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
So miserable were they that both their towns and their lands were wasted, and yet so stupid that they needed to be told this, to have it shown to them. "Look and see how it is; your country is desolate; the ground is not cultivated, for want of inhabitants, the villages being deserted, Judg. v. 7 .
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; 15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:100%@v14-15
As - Hebrew. as the overthrow of strangers, that is, which strangers bring upon a land which is not likely to continue in their hands, and therefore they spare no persons, and spoil and destroy all things, which is not usually done in wars between persons of the same, or of a neighbouring nation.
Your country is desolate,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
Your country is desolate - The description of the ruined and desolate state of the country in these verses does not suit with any part of the prosperous times of Uzziah and Jotham. It very well agrees with the time of Ahaz, when Judea was ravaged by the joint invasion of the Israelites and Syrians, and by the incursions of the Philistines and Edomites. The date of this prophecy is therefore generally fixed to the time of Ahaz. But on the other hand it may be considered whether those instances of idolatry which are urged in Isa 1:29 - the worshipping in groves and gardens - having been at all times too commonly practiced, can be supposed to be the only ones which the prophet would insist upon in the time of Ahaz; who spread the grossest idolatry through the whole country, and introduced it even into the temple; and, to complete his abominations, made his son pass through the fire to Molech. It is said, 2Ki 15:37, that in Jotham’s time “the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin - and Pekah.” If we may suppose any invasion from that quarter to have been actually made at the latter end of Jotham’s reign, I should choose to refer this prophecy to that time. And your cities are burned. - Nineteen of Dr. Kennicott’s MSS. and twenty-two of De Rossi’s, some of my own, with the Syriac and Arabic, add the conjunction which makes the hemistich more complete. 1:7At the end of the verse, זרים zarim. This reading, though confirmed by all the ancient versions, gives us no good sense; for “your land is devoured by strangers; and is desolate, as if overthrown by strangers,” is a mere tautology, or, what is as bad, an identical comparison. […]
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַרְצְכֶ֣ם | ʾartzekhem | land your | H776 → | 2504 times |
| שְׁמָמָ֔ה | shemamah | [is] a desolation | H8077 → | 57 times |
| עָרֵיכֶ֖ם | ʾareikhem | cities your | H5892 → | 1090 times |
| שְׂרֻפ֣וֹת | serufot | [have been] burned | H8313 → | 117 times |
| אֵ֑שׁ | ʾesh | fire | H784 → | 378 times |
| אַדְמַתְכֶ֗ם | ʾadmatkhem | ground your | H127 → | 225 times |
| לְנֶגְדְּכֶם֙ | lenegdekhem | to before you | H5048 → | 151 times |
| זָרִים֙ | zarim | strangers | H2114 → | 77 times |
| אֹכְלִ֣ים | ʾokhelim | [are] devouring | H398 → | 810 times |
| אֹתָ֔הּ | ʾotah | <obj.> it | H853 → | 10935 times |
| וּשְׁמָמָ֖ה | ushemamah | and desolation | H8077 → | 57 times |
| כְּמַהְפֵּכַ֥ת | kemahpekhat | [is] like [the] overthrow of | H4114 → | |
| זָרִֽים׃ | zarim | strangers | H2114 → | 77 times |
אַרְצְכֶ֣םland your
ʾartzekhemH776 →2504 times
שְׁמָמָ֔ה[is] a desolation
shemamahH8077 →57 times
עָרֵיכֶ֖םcities your
ʾareikhemH5892 →1090 times
שְׂרֻפ֣וֹת[have been] burned
serufotH8313 →117 times
אֵ֑שׁfire
ʾeshH784 →378 times
אַדְמַתְכֶ֗םground your
ʾadmatkhemH127 →225 times
לְנֶגְדְּכֶם֙to before you
lenegdekhemH5048 →151 times
זָרִים֙strangers
zarimH2114 →77 times
אֹכְלִ֣ים[are] devouring
ʾokhelimH398 →810 times
אֹתָ֔הּ<obj.> it
ʾotahH853 →10935 times
וּשְׁמָמָ֖הand desolation
ushemamahH8077 →57 times
כְּמַהְפֵּכַ֥ת[is] like [the] overthrow of
kemahpekhatH4114 →
זָרִֽים׃strangers
zarimH2114 →77 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Hosea 7:9Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know.
it leads to
- Hosea 8:7
For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
- Hosea 8:7
Through
Lamentations 5:2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
it leads to
- Zephaniah 1:13
Their wealth will be plundered and their houses laid waste. They will build houses but not inhabit them, and plant vineyards but never drink their wine.
- Deuteronomy 28:30–68
You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not…
- Psalms 79:1–2
The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
- Zephaniah 1:13
Through
Deuteronomy 28:43The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 28:13
The LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward, if you hear and carefully follow the commandments of the LORD your God, which I…
- 1 Samuel 13:19–23
And no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “The Hebrews must not be allowed to make swords or spears.”
- Deuteronomy 28:13
Through
Deuteronomy 28:33A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 5:17
They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword…
- Jeremiah 5:17
Through
Ezekiel 30:12I will make the streams dry up and sell the land to the wicked. By the hands of foreigners I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it. I, the LORD, have…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 29:3
Speak to him and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt, O great monster who lies among his rivers, who says,…
- Ezekiel 29:3
Where this verse is studied
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About Isaiah
This page draws on 14 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 16:18; Hippolytus of Rome, ON THE ANTICHRIST 30; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 1:3; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Justin Martyr, The First Apology, Chapter XLVII; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5:4 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.