"This prophecy probably has multiple fulfillments, one of which occurred during a later siege of Jerusalem when the people turned to cannibalism. (Jeremiah 19:9.) There may yet come a time when food will be so scarce that desperate survivors will eat the flesh of the dead." (Brewster, Hoyt.Isaiah Plain and Simple, p. 95.)
The Jeremiah reference is:
Jer. 19:8-9: And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
Literary analysis: While it is certain that there could have been an historical fulfillment to this prophecy, it is also within the scope of the poetic text to have a meaning beyond history.
Hunger can be a powerful metaphor for the search for God, and the searching on the right and the left without satisfaction is an image of those who are unable to assuage their hunger in the ideas of the world around them. Once again, however, rather than turn to their God where they might find sustenance, they will turn on themselves. Eating the flesh of one's own arm can be seen as the desperate attempt to find in one's own philosophy the comfort that should come from the Lord. In this metaphorical sense it has fulfillment.