And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
All Commentaries on Isaiah 1:8 Go To Isaiah 1
Jerome
AD 420
But since the fruits were removed in this manner, only the drying arbors of the bushes and the cottages remain, the custodian having departed because there is nothing left for him to preserve. Therefore God omnipotent also abandons the temple and causes the city to be deserted. There is no need to prove this with words, especially to us who see Zion deserted and Jerusalem overthrown and the temple leveled to the ground. But the fact that he calls Zion a daughter displays the most clement affection of a parent. Neither is it any wonder that Zion is called a daughter, since Babylon also is frequently referred to as a daughter. For we are all children of God by nature, though we have been alienated from him by our own sins. Analogically, our souls can be called God’s vineyard and a paradise of fruits, having God as its custodian provided that the mind, that is, the nous, presides. But if it is plundered by sin as though by wild beasts, then we are forsaken by God the custodian and rendered utterly alone.
