Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house like the high places of the forest.
Read Chapter 3
Cyril of Jerusalem
AD 386
Isaiah lived almost a thousand years ago and saw Zion in its primitive form. The city was still standing, beautified with public squares and clothed in honor; yet he says, “Zion shall be plowed like a field.” He was foretelling what has been fulfilled in our day. Observe the exactness of the prophecy; for he said, “Daughter Zion shall be left like a hut in a vineyard, like a shed in a cucumber patch.” Now the place is full of cucumber patches. Do you see how the Holy Spirit enlightens the saints? Therefore do not be distracted by a common term but hold fast to what is exactly true.
Forests, after its destruction by Nabuchodonosor. (Calmet)
In the space of three years' neglect, shrubs were growing in the courts of the temple, 1 Machabees iv. 38. (Haydock)
Rufus ploughed up the spot where the temple had stood, after the Romans had burnt it down. (St. Jerome; Josephus, Jewish Wars vii. 20.)
This prediction made a deep impression on the minds of the people. It caused them to refrain from killing Jeremias,
Hence again the divine Micah was unable to brook the building of Zion with blood, however you interpret the phrase, and of Jerusalem with iniquity. Meanwhile, these heads of the house of Jacob abhorred justice. The priests were teaching for hire. The prophets were prophesying for money! What does Micah say will be the result of this? “Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a storehouse of fruit, and the mountain of the house shall be as the grove of the forest.” He bewails also the scarcity of the upright, there being scarcely a stalk or a gleaming grape left, since both the prince asks and the judge curries favor, so that his language is almost the same as the mighty David’s: “Save me, O Lord, for the godly man ceases.” Their blessings shall fail them, for “you consume like a moth what is dear to him.” In Defense of His Flight to Pontus, Oration
