Isaiah 33:9

9 The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling.

Isaiah 33:9 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 33:9

The earth mourneth [and] languisheth
All Christendom, being now under the power, dominion, and tyranny of antichrist, and the church's faithful witnesses slain, and a stop put to all Gospel ministrations; and therefore the church must be in a very languishing condition, and great reason for mourning: Lebanon is ashamed, [and] hewn down;
being stripped of its stately cedars; as now the church of Christ, comparable to that goodly mountain Lebanon, will be deprived of its able ministers, which were like tall and spreading Cedars, for their gifts, grace, strength, and usefulness: Sharon is like a wilderness;
such parts, as Great Britain, which have been most fruitful (as Sharon was a very fruitful place) for the Gospel, and Gospel ordinances, in the purity of them, and for professors of religion, being fruitful in grace, and in good works, shall now be like a desert; there being no ministry, no ordinances, nor any, that dare to make an open profession of the true religion: and Bashan and Carmel shake off [their fruits];
before they are ripe, or come to anything; places noted for being fruitful, and pastures for flocks; and denote, as before, such spots in Christendom where the Gospel has most flourished, but now should be like barren heaths, and desert places.

Isaiah 33:9 In-Context

7 See, the men of war are sorrowing outside the town: those who came looking for peace are weeping bitterly.

8 The highways are waste, no man is journeying there: the agreement is broken, he has made sport of the towns, he has no thought for man.

9 The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling.

10 Now will I come forward, says the Lord; now will I be lifted up; now will my power be seen.

11 Your designs will be without profit, and their effect will be nothing: you will be burned up by the fire of my breath.