Therefore hath the curse devoured - Eaten it up; a figurative expression that is common in the Scriptures, denoting that the desolation is widespread and ruinous.
Are burned - (חרוּ chârû). Instead of this reading, Lowth proposes to read: חרבוּ chârebû ‘Are destroyed.’ The Septuagint reads it, ‘Therefore the inhabitants of the land shall be poor.’ The Syriac, ‘The inhabitants of the land shall be slain.’ But there is no authority from the manuscripts to change the text as proposed by Lowth, Nor is it necessary. The prophet does not mean that the inhabitants of the land were consumed by fire. The expression is evidently figurative. He is speaking of the effect of wrath or the curse, and that effect is often described in the Scriptures as burning, or consuming, as a fire does. The sense is, that the inhabitants of the land are brought under the withering, burning, consuming effect of that wrath; and the same effects are produced by it as are seen when a fire runs over a field or a forest. Hence, the word here used (חרה chârâh, “to burn, to be kindled”) is often used in connection with wrath, to denote burning or raging anger. Exodus 22:23 : ‘His anger burns.’ Genesis 30:2 : ‘And the anger of Jacob was kindled against Rachel; Genesis 44:18; Job 27:2-3; Job 42:7; Genesis 31:6 : ‘His anger was kindled.’ Psalms 37:1, Psalms 37:7-8; Proverbs 24:19 Compare Job 30:30 :
My skin is black upon me,
And my bones are burnt with heat.
The sense is, that the inhabitants of the land were wasted away under the wrath of God, so that few were left; as the trees of the forest are destroyed before a raging fire.
And few men are left - This was literally true after the invasion of the land by the Chaldeans 2 Kings 24:14-16.