Isaiah 24:6

Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth— This verse contains the fourth gradation, and is well illustrated by Zechariah 5:1; Zechariah 5:11. The phrase are burned, refers to the internal consumption and decay. See Job 30:30. Psalms 69:3. The meaning of the prophet is, that the principal inhabitants of the land should waste away, be gradually consumed, and perish; whether dispersed by the public calamities, or reduced to poverty by the spoiling of their goods; so that few of them should remain, and they only of the poorer sort; and this was the face of things in Judaea at the time referred to.