Her gates shall lament and mourn. She shall be desolate and sit on the ground.
Parallel Translations
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Her gates shall lament and mourn. She shall be desolate and sit on the ground.
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And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
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And her gates shall lament and mourn; and utterly bereft she shall sit upon the ground.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Isaiah 3:26 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 14:2 “Judah mourns, and its gates languish. They sit in black on the ground. The cry of Jerusalem goes up.
- Lamentations 2:10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground. They keep silence. They have cast up dust on their heads. They have clothed themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
- Lamentations 1:4 The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
- Job 2:13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
- Job 2:8 He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
- Ezekiel 26:16 Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground, and will tremble every moment, and be astonished at you.
- Luke 19:44 and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
- Isaiah 47:1 “Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 3:26 And her gates shall lament and mourn;…
Isa 3:26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she [being] desolate shall sit upon the ground.
Ver. 26. And her gates shall lament.] Because unfrequented. {Lam 1:4}
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And the king desolate.] Swept and wiped of all; not, as once, with her turrified head {a} and stretched forth neck.
Sitteth upon the ground.] As a sad mourner. Money was coined by Vespasian with a woman sitting at the root of a palm tree, and this inscription, Iudaea capta. The Jews captured.
{a} πυργουν κεφαλην. - Nazian.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Her gates; the gates of Zion or Jerusalem, which,…
Her gates; the gates of Zion or Jerusalem, which, by a figure very usual in sacred Scripture and all authors, are said to lament, to imply the great desolation of the place, that there should be no people to go out and come in by the gates, or to meet together in the gates, as they used to do. Shall sit upon the ground, like a mournful woman bewailing the loss of her husband and children.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And her gates shall lament and mourn,.... These being…
And her gates shall lament and mourn,.... These being utterly destroyed; or there being none to pass through them, meaning the gates of the city of Jerusalem:
and she being desolate; clear of inhabitants, quite emptied, and exhausted of men; being laid even with the ground, and her children within her, Luk 19:44.
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shall sit upon the ground; being levelled with it, and not one stone cast upon another; alluding to the posture of mourners, Job 2:13. Our countryman, Mr. Gregory (k), thinks that the device of the coin of the emperor Vespasian, in the reverse of it, upon taking Judea, which was a woman sitting on the ground, leaning back, to a palm tree, with this inscription, "Judea Capta", was contrived out of this prophecy; and that he was helped to it by Josephus, the Jew, then in his court. The whole prophecy had its accomplishment, not in the Babylonish captivity, as Jarchi suggests, much less in the times of Ahaz, as Kimchi and Abarbinal suppose, but in the times of Jerusalem's destruction by the Romans.
(k) Notes and Observations, &c, p. 26, 27.
Next: Isaiah Chapter 4
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Gates - The gates of Zion or Jerusalem, which,…
Gates - The gates of Zion or Jerusalem, which, by a figure, are said to lament, to imply the great desolation of the place; that there would be no people to go out and come in by the gates, as they used to do. Shall sit - Like a mournful woman bewailing the loss of her husband and children.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 26. Sit upon the ground.] Sitting on the…
Verse 26. Sit upon the ground.] Sitting on the ground was a posture that denoted mourning and deep distress. The prophet Jeremiah (La 2:8) has given it the first place among many indications of sorrow, in the following elegant description of the same state of distress of his country: -
"The elders of the daughter of Sion sit on the ground,
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they are silent:
They have cast up dust on their heads; they have girded
themselves with sackcloth;
The virgins of Jerusalem have bowed down their heads to
the ground."
"We find Judea," says Mr. Addison, (on Medals, Dial. ii,) "on several coins of Vespasian and Titus, in a posture that denotes sorrow and captivity. I need not mention her sitting on the ground, because we have already spoken of the aptness of such a posture to represent an extreme affliction. I fancy the Romans might have an eye on the customs of the Jewish nation, as well as those of their country, in the several marks of sorrow they have set on this figure. The psalmist describes the Jews lamenting their captivity in the same pensive posture: 'By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, O Zion.' But what is more remarkable, we find Judea represented as a woman in sorrow sitting on the ground, in a passage of the prophet, that foretells the very captivity recorded on this medal." Mr. Addison, I presume, refers to this place of Isaiah; and therefore must have understood it as foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation by the Romans: whereas it seems plainly to relate, in its first and more immediate view at least, to the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, and the dissolution of the Jewish state under the captivity at Babylon. - L.
Several of the coins mentioned here by Mr. Addison are in my own collection: and to such I have already referred in this work. I shall describe one here. On the obverse a fine head of the emperor Vespasian with this legend, Imperator Julius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunitia Potestate Pater Patriae, Consul VIII.
On the reverse a tall palm tree, emblem of the land of Palestine, the emperor standing on the left, close to the tree, with a trophy behind him; on the right, Judea under the figure of a female captive sitting on the ground, with her head resting on her hand, the elbow on her knee, weeping. Around is this legend, Judea Capta. Senates Consulto. However this prediction may refer proximately to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, I am fully of opinion that it ultimately refers to the final ruin of the Jewish state by the Romans. And so it has been understood by the general run of the best and most learned interpreters and critics.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And her gates - Cities were surrounded with walls,…
And her gates - Cities were surrounded with walls, and were entered through gates opening into the principal streets. Those gates became, of course, the places of chief confluence and of business; and the expression here means, that in all the places of confluence, or amidst the assembled people, there should be lamentation on account of the slain in battle, and the loss of their mighty men in war.
And she - Jerusalem is often represented as a female distinguished for beauty. It is here represented as a female sitting in a posture of grief.
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Being desolate, shall sit upon the ground - To sit on the ground, or in the dust, was the usual posture of grief and mourning, denoting great depression and humiliation; Lam 2:10; Lam 3:28; Jer 15:17; Job 3:13; Ezr 9:3-5. It is a remarkable coincidence, that in the medals which were made by the Romans to commemorate the captivity of Judea and Jerusalem, Judea is represented under the figure of a female sitting in a posture of grief, under a palm tree, with this inscription - judea capta. The passage here, however, refers not to the captivity by the Romans, but to the first destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. It is a tender and most affecting image of desolation. During the captivity at Babylon, it was completely fulfilled; and for ages since, Judea might be appropriately represented by a captive female sitting pensively on the ground.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Ground. The posture of captives, Lamentations i. 1.
Ground. The posture of captives, Lamentations i. 1.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain gates--The place of concourse personified is represented mourning for…
gates--The place of concourse personified is represented mourning for the loss of those multitudes which once frequented it.
desolate . . . sit upon . . . ground--the very figure under which Judea was represented on medals after the destruction by Titus: a female sitting under a palm tree in a posture of grief; the motto, Judæa capta (Job 2:13; Lam 2:10, where, as here primarily, the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar is alluded to).
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that day--the calamitous period described in previous chapter.
seven--indefinite number among the Jews. So many men would be slain, that there would be very many more women than men; for example, seven women, contrary to their natural bashfulness, would sue to (equivalent to "take hold of," Isa 3:6) one man to marry them.
eat . . . own bread--foregoing the privileges, which the law (Exo 21:10) gives to wives, when a man has more than one.
reproach--of being unwedded and childless; especially felt among the Jews, who were looking for "the seed of the woman," Jesus Christ, described in Isa 4:2; Isa 54:1, Isa 54:4; Luk 1:25.
Next: Isaiah Chapter 4
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 26. Her gates — A poetical soliloquizing. The “gates”…
26. Her gates — A poetical soliloquizing. The “gates” of Jerusalem were places busy with concourses occupied in imparting news, in trades, and in settling of disputes.
Lament and mourn — The usual daily, commonplace air of the above scenes is to be changed to loud wailings, such as Orientals well know how to make.
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Sit upon the ground — This was the posture of grief and mourning; and so Judea is represented in the medals struck on the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.
The destruction and captivity, however, here looked forward to by the prophet, was probably the first destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 26. her gates] the places of rendezvous in Eastern…
26. her gates] the places of rendezvous in Eastern cities. lament and mourn] because they are now deserted. Cf. Lam_1:4; Jer_14:2.
and she, emptied, shall sit upon the ground] Cf. ch. Isa_47:1; Lam_2:10; Job_2:13.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Her gates. The sudden change of person is common…
Her gates. The sudden change of person is common in Oriental poetry. Shall lament and mourn. On account of their destruction, which would be very complete. (see Lam_1:4 Lam_2:9 Neh_1:3 Neh_2:13) Conquerors could not do more than break breaches in the walls of a town, but they carefully destroyed the gates. Being desolate; or, emptied plundered of everything, and so far "cleansed" from her abominations. Shall sit upon the ground . In deep grief. (see Job_2:13; and comp. Isa_47:1 Lam_2:10) So in the coin of Vespasian, the captive Judah (Judea capta) sits upon the ground.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.