John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 1:7

"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." — Isaiah 1:7 (ASV)

Your country is desolate. Literally, it is desolation; and thus Isaiah goes on to speak more fully and plainly of what he had already said figuratively about chastisements: that the country has been reduced to a frightful state of devastation. For I choose to interpret all these statements as relating to past occurrences, because the Prophet does not threaten God's vengeance but describes those heavy calamities that have already happened. He upbraids them for their indolence and stupidity in remaining unmoved by their afflictions.

Like the destruction of strangers. This is added for the sake of heightening the picture; for the opinion that זרים (zarim) is here put for זרם (zerem), an inundation, is far-fetched. That word might, no doubt, be applied to enemies, but it is better to take it as literally denoting foreigners.

The calamity is more grievous when it is brought on by men who are unknown, who have come from a distant country, and who lay waste with far greater recklessness and cruelty than neighboring tribes. Such men destroy cities; burn houses, buildings, and villages; and spread desolation all around. In short, they rush forward with barbarous ferocity, bent on murders and conflagrations, and are more eager to inflict damage than to make gain.

Neighbors, however, when they have subdued a country, can retain possession of it by having a garrison. As soon as a revolt is attempted or an insurrection takes place, they can send additional troops. Therefore, they are not so cruel, nor do they lay waste a country from which they hope to derive some advantage. It is thus no ordinary calamity, but the most shocking of all calamities, that is here described.

From this we should learn that when God begins to punish us, if we do not repent, He does not immediately desist but multiplies the chastisements and continually follows them up with other afflictions. We should therefore abstain from such obstinacy if we do not wish to draw down upon ourselves the same punishments, or at least to deserve the same reproach that was brought against the Jews: that though they had received sharp warnings and had felt God's hand, they still could not be corrected or reformed.

Moreover, we should not wonder that we are visited with such a great amount and variety of afflictions, of which we see no end or limit, for by our obstinacy we fight against God and against His stripes. It must therefore happen with us as it does with wincing and unruly horses: the more obstinate and refractory they are, the more severely the whip and spur are applied to them.

In the present day, there are many who almost accuse God of cruelty, as if He always treated us with harshness and as if He should chastise us more gently; but they do not take into account our shocking crimes. If these crimes were duly weighed by them, they would assuredly acknowledge that, amidst the utmost severity, God's forbearance is wonderful. And, so that we may not think the Lord was too severe in this case, we must take into consideration the vices He afterwards enumerates.

Here an objection will be raised: Why does Isaiah declare that the nation endured such a variety of afflictions, while we have already mentioned that he began to prophesy under Uzziah, during whose reign the kingdom of Judah was in a prosperous condition (2 Chronicles 26:5–15)? For although, towards the end of Uzziah's life, the kingdom of Israel met with some disasters, this still did not affect the kingdom of Judah. Accordingly, the Jews think that these words relate to the reign of Jotham (2 Kings 15:32) and not of Uzziah. Their opinion appears at first sight to have little weight; yet, when the whole matter is examined, it is not destitute of probability. For we know that the prophets did not always attend to chronological arrangement in collecting their prophecies, and it is possible that this discourse of Isaiah was placed first in order simply because it contains a summary view of the doctrine that is afterwards to be delivered.

Others think they can easily resolve the difficulty by interpreting the whole passage as a description of vice and not of punishments; but what is said about the burning of cities and the desolation of the country cannot easily be dismissed in that manner. If it is supposed that the Prophet speaks of the future and not the present condition of that kingdom, and that in God's name He foretells approaching calamities (though the people did not behold them with their eyes), I do not greatly object to that view. However, it is probable that he treats of events that were known to them. It is a real narrative and not a prediction, though I acknowledge that in the next verse he announces the approaching result.