And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
Parallel translations
- WEB Her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate and sit on the ground.
- BSB And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
- NKJV Her gates shall lament and mourn, And she being desolate shall sit on the ground.
- NASB And her gates will lament and mourn, And she will sit deserted on the ground.
- NLT The gates of Zion will weep and mourn. The city will be like a ravaged woman, huddled on the ground.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Personified Jerusalem mourns at her gates and sits desolate on the ground, picturing a city emptied and bereaved. It captures the grief and emptiness that follow judgment.
Overview
City gates were centers of commerce and justice, so their lament signals the collapse of public life. The image of a widow sitting on the ground anticipates the desolation later associated with the exile (Lamentations 1:1). Yet within Isaiah's larger message, such judgment is never God's final word, for He promises restoration to a humbled remnant.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Lam 2:10The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
- Jer 14:2Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
- Lam 1:4The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
- Job 2:13So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.
- Luke 19:44And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
- Ezek 26:16Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee.
- Job 2:8And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
- Isa 47:1Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 3:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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