Her gates shall lament and mourn, And she being desolate shall sit on the ground.
Parallel translations
- WEB Her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate and sit on the ground.
- KJV And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
- BSB And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will 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 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.
- Jer 14:2“Judah mourns, and its gates languish, they sit in black on the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
- Lam 1:4The ways of Zion mourn, because no one come to the solemn assembly; all her gates are desolate, her priests sigh: her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
- Job 2:13So 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.
- Luke 19:44and 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.”
- Ezek 26:16Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit on the ground, and shall tremble every moment, and be astonished at you.
- Job 2:8He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
- Isa 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.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.