Isaiah 3:26
in Isaiah 3And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate and sit upon the ground.
KJV
And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
⋯
This verse in Isaiah 3
Commentary
10 notes on this verseAnd 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. shall sit upon the ground; being levelled with it, and not one stone cast upon another; alluding to the posture of mourners, Job 2:
This site's exposition
Your men will fall by
on Isaiah 3:25-26
Verse 25 widens the judgment from dress to the loss of the defenders of the city. The gates of Zion "will lament and mourn," the city pictured as a widow. She will "sit on the ground," destitute, and the picture runs straight into the seven women of 4:1.
This site's exposition
the gates of Zion will lament and mourn
The gates were where the elders judged and the crowds gathered, so empty gates mean a dead city. Zion sits on the ground like a mourning widow. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that Roman coins after the fall of Jerusalem under Titus showed Judea as a woman seated in grief.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 26.) And her gates will mourn and lament, and the city itself, desolate, will sit upon the earth. Which we see with our own eyes until this day. The interpretation according to tropology is easy, that whoever gives a place to the devil and does not keep their heart guarded with all vigilance, let their gates mourn: and in the absence of the bridegroom, let them always be in mourning, and falling from the heights, let them sit in the dust of the earth.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Third, delight in their dignity, and as to this, he says: her gates, that is, the judges sitting in the gates, shall lament, inwardly, and mourn, outwardly: her gates are destroyed in the ground: he has destroyed, and broken her bars, her king (Lam 2:9). …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
), the enemies having made themselves masters of them; and the city itself, being desolate, being emptied or swept, shall sit upon the ground like a disconsolate widow. If sin be harboured with in the walls, lamentation and mourning are near the gates.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
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.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Sit upon the ground - Sitting on the ground was a posture that denoted mourning and deep distress.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
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;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
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. 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.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְאָנ֥וּ | veanu | and they will lament | H578 → | |
| וְאָבְל֖וּ | veavelu | and they will mourn | H56 → | 39 times |
| פְּתָחֶ֑יהָ | petacheiha | gates its | H6607 → | |
| וְנִקָּ֖תָה | venikatah | and it will be emptied | H5352 → | |
| לָאָ֥רֶץ | laaretz | to the ground | H776 → | 2504 times |
| תֵּשֵֽׁב׃ | teshev | it will sit | H3427 → | 1079 times |
וְאָנ֥וּand they will lament
veanuH578 →
וְאָבְל֖וּand they will mourn
veaveluH56 →39 times
פְּתָחֶ֑יהָgates its
petacheihaH6607 →
וְנִקָּ֖תָהand it will be emptied
venikatahH5352 →
לָאָ֥רֶץto the ground
laaretzH776 →2504 times
תֵּשֵֽׁב׃it will sit
teshevH3427 →1079 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Luke 19:44They will level you to the ground—you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”
it leads to
- Luke 21:6
“As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
- Luke 13:34–35
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you…
- John 3:18–21
Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
- Lamentations 1:8
Jerusalem has sinned greatly; therefore she has become an object of scorn. All who honored her now despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns away.
- 1 Peter 2:12
Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.
- Luke 21:6
Through
Job 2:13Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.
it leads to
- Genesis 50:10
When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.
- Nehemiah 1:4
When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
- Genesis 50:10
Through
Jeremiah 14:2“Judah mourns and her gates languish. Her people wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 8:21
For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed. I mourn; horror has gripped me.
- Jeremiah 8:21
About Isaiah
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.