Isaiah 3:26

26 The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.

Isaiah 3:26 in Other Translations

KJV
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
ESV
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground.
NLT
26 The gates of Zion will weep and mourn. The city will be like a ravaged woman, huddled on the ground.
MSG
26 The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted with people mourning their dead - A city stooped under the weight of her loss, brought to her knees by her sorrows.
CSB
26 Then her gates will lament and mourn; deserted, she will sit on the ground.

Isaiah 3:26 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 3:26

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, ( Luke 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 2:13 ) ( Lamentations 1:1 ) ( Lamentations 2:9 Lamentations 2:10 ) . Our countryman, Mr. Gregory F11, 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.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 Notes and Observations, &c, p. 26, 27.

Isaiah 3:26 In-Context

24 Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding.
25 Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle.
26 The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.

Cross References 4

  • 1. Isaiah 14:31; Isaiah 24:12; Isaiah 45:2
  • 2. S Psalms 137:1; Isaiah 24:4,7; Isaiah 29:2; Isaiah 33:9; Jeremiah 4:28; Jeremiah 14:2
  • 3. S Leviticus 26:31
  • 4. S Job 2:13; Lamentations 4:5; Lamentations 2:10
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