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)
A scroll from Qumrân Dead Sea scroll 1QIs (see Vol. I, p. 31; Vol. IV, p. 86), reads “its desolation is over it.”
Your country is desolate.
From his figurative description of the land (vs. 2-6) the prophet turns to a literal description. The picture here given aptly represents the situation of Judah at the time of the Assyrian invasions. With their customary ruthless cruelty the Assyrians had swept through the country, burning, pillaging, and killing. Many of the strong cities had been taken, countless small villages had been smitten, and much of the land had been reduced to a desolate waste. It appeared that the end was not far away.