God has changed from being Jerusalem’s helper to being her enemy, the one who leads an army against her. It is a terrifying image: the Lord has trampled Jerusalem, who was once his bride! He crushes her, like grapes in a winepress. In the beginning, Israel was the Lord’s precious vine that he planted for himself in Canaan (Psalm 80:8–10; Isaiah 5:7). But now her people are cut off and trampled in the winepress of God’s wrath (see Revelation 14:19; Revelation 19:15).
15 “The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst; he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.