John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 1:8

"And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city." — Isaiah 1:8 (ASV)

And the daughter of Zion shall be left as a cottage in a vineyard. He alludes to a custom existing in France, where vinekeepers build a cottage for themselves when the grapes begin to ripen. His next comparison, closely related to the former, is taken from a custom of that nation of also protecting gardens of cucumbers by means of men who kept watch during the night. He then explains what he intended to convey by both comparisons.

Like a besieged city: this may be explained in two ways: either that the whole country will be laid waste, with the solitary exception of the city, which will be left standing like a cottage, or that the city itself will be destroyed. The former interpretation is adopted by the Jews, and they understand this passage to relate to the siege of Sennacherib. However, I think that it has a wider meaning and embraces other calamities that followed later.

This may indeed refer to the neighboring country, from whose misery and devastation it was inevitable that the city would sustain much damage. But I consider the Prophet’s meaning to be that the evils of which he speaks will reach even to the city itself, until, broken and ruined, it will wear the aspect of a humble cottage.

The daughter of Zion is the name given here to Jerusalem, in accordance with what is customary in Scripture: to give the designation of daughter to any nation, in the same manner as the daughter of Babylon (Isaiah 47:1) and the daughter of Tyre (Psalms 45:12) are names given to the Tyrians and Babylonians. Zion is the name used here rather than Jerusalem, because of the dignity of the temple; and this figure of speech, where a part is taken for the whole, is frequently used.