“The fortified city is solitary.

Its habitation is deserted.

It is forsaken,

Like the wilderness.

There the calves graze.

There they lie down.

They strip its branches.

When its boughs are dry,

They are broken.

Women come.

They make a fire of them.

This is a people

Without understanding.

Therefore he who made them

Will not have compassion on them.

He that formed them

Will show them no favor.”

According to Isaiah, the fortified city is deserted. Nobody lives there, since it is like a wilderness, where cows graze and lie down. This city is like a tree that has had its branches stripped. The remaining dry branches are broken so that women can come along to make firewood out of them. They are a people, but we not sure who they are, who have no understanding. What is for sure is that Yahweh, their creator, has no compassion for them. He will not show them any favors.