Israel is smitten because of iniquity. Her iniquities are likened to a spiritual disease. Due to these iniquities, Israel is made desolate and her land is given over to invaders. Only a few survivors remain - these survivors will be obedient to the Lord.
5 Why be smitten further
by adding to your waywardness?
The whole head is sick,
the whole heart diseased.
6 From the soles of the feet even to the head
there is nothing sound,
only wounds and bruises and festering sores;
they have not been pressed out or bound up,
nor soothed with ointment.
7 Your land is ruined,
your cities burned with fire;
your native soil is devoured by aliens in your presence,
laid waste at its takeover by foreigners.
8 The Daughter of Zion is left
like a shelter in a vineyard,
a hut in a melon field,
a city under siege.
9 Had not Jehovah of Hosts left us a few survivors,
we should have been as Sodom,
or become like Gomorrah.