Isaiah 1 · Verse 7

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, King James Version

Isaiah 1:7 in other translations

BSB	Your land is desolate; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your fields before you— a desolation demolished by strangers.
WEB	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.
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.
YLT	Your land is a desolation, your cities burnt with fire, Your ground, before you strangers are consuming it, And a desolation as overthrown by strangers!
DARBY	Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers eat it up in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
BBE	Your country has become waste; your towns are burned with fire; as for your land, it is overturned before your eyes, made waste and overcome by men from strange lands.
Webster	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.

What does Isaiah 1:7 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

7. Judah had not in Uzziah's reign recovered from the ravages of the Syrians in Joash's reign (2Ch 24:24), and of Israel in Amaziah's reign (2Ch 25:13, 23, &c.). Compare Isaiah's contemporary (Am 4:6-11), where, as here (Is 1:9, 10), Israel is compared to "Sodom and Gomorrah," because of the judgments on it by "fire." in your presence--before your eyes: without your being able to prevent them. desolate, &c.--literally, "there is desolation, such as one might look for from foreign" invaders.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 7 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, 2Kgs 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. At 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. Aben Ezra thought that the word in its present form might be taken for the same with זרם zerem, an inundation: Schultens is of the same opinion; (see Taylor's Concord.); and Schindler in his Lexicon explains it in the same manner: and so, says Zimchi, some explain it. Abendana endeavors to reconcile it to grammatical analogy in the following manner: "זרים zarim is the same with זרם zerem; that is, as overthrown by an inundation of waters: and these two words have the same analogy as קדם kedem and קדים kadim. Or it may be a concrete of the same form with שכיר shechir; and the meaning will be: as overthrown by rain pouring down violently, and causing a flood." On Sal. ben Melech, in loc. But I rather suppose the true reading to be זרם zerem, and have translated it accordingly: the word זרים zerim, in the line above, seems to have caught the transcriber's eye, and to have led him into this mistake. But this conjecture of the learned prelate is not confirmed by any MS. yet discovered.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Isaiah 1:1-9

The corruptions prevailing among the Jews. (Is. 1:1-9) Severe censures. (Is. 1:10-15) Exhortations to repentance. (Is. 1:16-20) The state of Judah is lamented; with gracious promises of the gospel times. (Is. 1:21-31) Verses 1-9 Isaiah signifies, "The salvation of the Lord;" a very suitable name for this prophet, who prophesies so much of Jesus the Saviour, and his salvation. God's professing people did not know or…

Read the full comment on Isaiah 1:1-9 →

Isaiah 1:7 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

אַרְצְכֶ֣ם'ar.tze.Khemland yourH776

שְׁמָמָ֔הshe.ma.Mah[is] a desolationH8077

עָרֵיכֶ֖ם'a.rei.Khemcities yourH5892

שְׂרֻפ֣וֹתse.ru.Fot[have been] burnedH8313

אֵ֑שׁ'EshfireH784

אַדְמַתְכֶ֗ם'ad.mat.Khemground yourH127

לְנֶגְדְּכֶם֙le.neg.de.Khemto before youH5048

זָרִים֙za.RimstrangersH2114

אֹכְלִ֣ים'o.khe.Lim[are] devouringH398

אֹתָ֔הּ'o.Tah<obj.> itH853

וּשְׁמָמָ֖הu.she.ma.Mahand desolationH8077

כְּמַהְפֵּכַ֥תke.mah.pe.Khat[is] like [the] overthrow ofH4114

זָרִֽים\׃za.RimstrangersH2114

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Isaiah 1:7

Deuteronomy 28:43
The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.
Lamentations 5:2
Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
Deuteronomy 28:33
The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:
Hosea 7:9
Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
Ezekiel 30:12
And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the Lord have spoken it.
2 Chronicles 28:5
Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
2 Chronicles 28:16-21
At that time did king Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria to help him. For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives. The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Beth–shemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there. For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord. …
Deuteronomy 28:48-52
Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young: And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. …
Leviticus 26:34
Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
Jeremiah 2:15
The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.
Isaiah 24:10-12
The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in. There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
Psalms 107:39
Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

country.
5:5,6,9; 6:11; 24:10-12; Le 26:34; De 28:51; 2Ch 28:5,16-21
Ps 107:34,39; Jer 6:8
burned.
9:5; 34:9; Jer 2:15
strangers.
5:17; De 28:33,43,48-52; La 5:2; Eze 30:12; Ho 7:9; 8:7
overthrown by strangers. Heb. the overthrow of strangers.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Isaiah 1:6
From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
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 1:8
And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

Read all of Isaiah 1

Isaiah 1:7 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Vuestra tierra está destruída, vuestras ciudades puestas á fuego, vuestra tierra delante de vosotros comida de extranjeros, y asolada como asolamiento de extraños.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Votre pays est dévasté, vos villes sont brûlées par le feu; votre terre, des étrangers la dévorent devant vos yeux, et elle est dévastée, comme ruinée par des étrangers.
German Elberfelder 1871	Euer Land ist eine Wüste, eure Städte sind mit Feuer verbrannt; eure Flur, -Fremde verzehren sie vor euren Augen; und eine Wüste ist es, gleich einer Umkehrung durch Fremde.
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Terra vestra deserta; civitates vestræ succensæ igni: regionem vestram coram vobis alieni devorant, et desolabitur sicut in vastitate hostili.