Isaiah 1:9

Isaiah 1:9. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

The state of the country, even under godly kings, had become so bad that, if there had not been a remnant according to the election of grace, there would have been no help for the land and its inhabitants, and they would have been burnt up, like Sodom and Gomorrah.