Jehovah chastised the children of Israel because of their apostasy. The word apostasy means to forsake God and to turn to and serve another god. Israel's apostasy was most serious, and God chastised them because of it.
Jehovah struck them so that their whole head became sick and their whole heart faint (1:5). From the sole of the foot even to the head there was no soundness in it. There were only bruises, blows, and raw wounds, which had not been pressed out nor bound up nor softened with oil (v. 6). There was the striking but no healing or soothing.
Due to their apostasy, Jehovah caused their land to be a desolation. He also caused their cities to be burned with fire and their field to be devoured by strangers in their sight and overthrown by strangers to be a desolation (1:7).
Jehovah left the city of Zion like a booth in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city (1:8). Unless Jehovah of hosts had left to them a surviving few, they would have been like Sodom and would have resembled Gomorrah (v. 9). In order to keep them from being altogether destroyed, He left them a small number who survived.
The Lord Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, eased Himself of His adversaries and avenged Himself of His enemies (1:24). These adversaries and enemies were the children of Israel. They had rebelled against God to such an extent that they became not only the adversaries, who were within God's nation, but also the enemies, who were outside God's nation. God eased Himself and avenged Himself by chastising His rebellious children. Moreover, God turned His hand against Israel. He purged away their dross as with lye and removed all their alloy (v. 25).