"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.
"And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumber, as a besieged city.
"Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah."
To me these verses portray a very hopeless state of destruction. While I've not experienced such things personally, images of war and destruction that I have seen are conjured up in my mind. It is a very lonely, hopeless, overwhelming scene, especially, I imagine, to one who has turned from the hope of the Lord.
We begin with verse 7. This is a prophecy of the coming destruction. At Isaiah's time the Holy Land was divided into two kingdoms--the North Kingdom, or Israel, and the South Kingdom of Judah. The North Kingdom's capital was Samaria and the South Kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. Assyria overtook the North Kingdom and it's people were taken captive and scattered abroad, becoming the lost 10 tribes of Israel. The Assyrians also came to attack Judah, but were unable at the time to overtake Jerusalem. (See 2 Kings 18-19) Later, the city of Jerusalem would be overtaken by Babylon, the temple destroyed, and the people taken into captivity.
In verse 7, Isaiah speaks of this destruction. Not only did they lay waste to their cities, but the "strangers" have come in and "devoured" it. This describes not only the political overtaking of the land as Gentiles came in, took the people captive, and scattered them abroad, but also the spiritual overtaking, which began with the House of Israel's disobedience, but continued as their sacred places were destroyed and the heathen practices came in and corrupted the correct teachings and practices given from God. Truly, they were also left spiritually desolate.
In 2 Kings 18:11-12, it talks of the Assyrian takeover of the North Kingdom saying:
"And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: Because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them."
They were destroyed because they rebelled against the Lord. Perhaps this is the reason that the city of Jerusalem was spared from the Assyrian attack. At the time the king, Hezekiah, was a righteous king, who "did that which was right in the sight of the Lord" (2 Kings 18:3). He destroyed the idols and trusted in God to save his people. He sought out Isaiah, the prophet, and the Lord performed a miracle to save Jerusalem. (See 2 Kings 19:31-35.)
But Judah fell into apostasy and eventually they too were overtaken and destroyed. In Lamentations, Jeremiah laments the state of Jerusalem. His words portray the physical and spiritual destruction. In Lamentations 1:1,3-6 he echoes the same feelings and sentiments of that of Isaiah, saying:
"How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!...
"Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.
"The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
"Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
"And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer."
He continues to describe the spiritual destruction in Lamentations 2:5-6, 10:
"The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
"And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest....
"The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground."
Yet the Lord was merciful. In Isaiah 1:8 it refers to the "daughter of Zion," meaning the city of Jerusalem. It says that she "is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city." I found a good explanation of cottage at http://www.bible-history.com/eastons/C/Cottage/. It defines it such:
Cottage:
(1.) A booth in a vineyard (Isa. 1:8); a temporary shed covered
with leaves or straw to shelter the watchman that kept the
garden. These were slight fabrics, and were removed when no
longer needed, or were left to be blown down in winter (Job
27:18).
(2.) A lodging-place (rendered "lodge" in Isa. 1:8); a
slighter structure than the "booth," as the cucumber patch is
more temporary than a vineyard (Isa. 24:20). It denotes a frail
structure of boughs supported on a few poles, which is still in
use in the East, or a hammock suspended between trees, in which
the watchman was accustomed to sleep during summer.
Donald W. Parry in his book, Visualizing Isaiah, explains: "All that remains in Jerusalem after its destruction are cottages and huts. Jerusalem, which once housed the mighty spiritual fortress—God's temple—is now like a cottage."
This gives us a good image of how this once beautiful, powerful city is now become like a frail, temporary cottage. Yet, even in this state, we see the mercy of the Lord as Isaiah continues in verse 9 to say that unless the Lord of Hosts had left them a small remnant, they would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah, which were utterly destroyed.
"The Lord of hosts" is also commonly referred to as the Lord of Sabaoth, which means hosts. This was a title given to Jehovah. According to the Bible Dictionary, "the hosts were the armies of Israel, but also included the angelic armies of heaven." Often in Isaiah, his use of "Assyria" refers more broadly to the world in a political sense and "Babylon" refers to the world in a spiritual sense. The Lord of Hosts then is the Lord of armies, in both a political and spiritual sense. He fights against Assyria and Babylon with his earthly and heavenly armies. I like a reference given in the Bible Dictionary of 2 Kings 6:14-17 that illustrates these heavenly armies:
"Therefore sent he (the king of Syria) thither horses and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.
"And when the servant of the man of God (Elisha's servant) was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?
"And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
"And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."
D&C 5:14 also gives us some insight into the army of the Lord:
"And to none else will I grant this power, to receive this same testimony among this generation, in this the beginning of the rising up and the coming forth of my church out of the wilderness--clear as the moon, and fair as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners."
There is a battle for the souls of men. The Lord fights to save His children and bestow upon them eternal life and Babylon, or the world, and the devil fight to take them captive and lead them down to hell. There are literal earthly and heavenly armies the Lord uses in this fight, but there are also the symbolic armies. We often refer to the missionaries sent out to proclaim the gospel as the "army of heaven." All faithful saints are enlisted in this army as we raise our standard to the world and proclaim His gospel to its inhabitants. In this fight, we too, we have the protection and guidance of the heavenly hosts, who are united in this cause.
As Joseph Smith taught, "The heavenly Priesthood will unite with the earthly, to bring about those great purposes; and whilst we are thus united in one common cause, to roll forth the kingdom of God, the heavenly Priesthood are not idle spectators, the Spirit of God will be showered down from above, and it will dwell in our midst." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 232.)