John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 25:2

"For thou hast made of a city a heap, of a fortified city a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built." — Isaiah 25:2 (ASV)

For thou hast made of a city a heap. Some refer this to Jerusalem; but I think that there is a change of number, as is very customary with the prophets. For the Prophet does not speak merely of a single city, but of many cities, which he says will be reduced to heaps.

As for the view held by some that the Romans made Jerusalem a palace, it has nothing to do with the Prophet’s meaning. The Prophet's meaning will be easily understood if we keep in mind what has already been stated. The Prophet does not confine his thoughts to those calamities by which the Lord afflicts many nations; instead, he extends his view to the end of the chastisements. In this manner, the Lord determined to tame and subdue the obstinacy of men, whom he would never have brought into subjection to him without their being broken down by various afflictions.

A palace of foreigners, that it may not be a city. The Prophet does not merely mean that, when the natives have been driven out, “foreigners” will inhabit the captured cities. This interpretation would not agree with what he immediately adds: “that it may be no longer a city.” Instead, he means that wandering bands of men, who are in need of a dwelling, will find abundant room there because no inhabitants will be left. Since ארמון (armōn) denotes a magnificent palace, the Prophet thus says ironically that highwaymen will dwell as in palaces, on account of the vast extent of the place that will be deserted.