Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 3:26
And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she [being] desolate shall sit upon the ground.
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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,
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. gatesThe place ofconcourse personified is represented mourning for the loss of thosemultitudes which once frequented it.
desolate . . . sit upon . . .groundthe very figure under which Judea was represented onmedals after the destruction by Titus: a female sitting undera palm tree in a posture of grief; the motto, Juda capta(Job 2:13; Lam 2:10,where, as here primarily, the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar isalluded to).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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, Lu 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. 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
What the prophet here foretells to the daughter of Zion he sees in Isa 3:26 fulfilled upon her: “Then will her gates lament and mourn, and desolate is she, sits down upon the ground.” The gates, where the husbands of the daughters of Zion, who have now fallen in war, sued at one time to gather together in such numbers, are turned into a state of desolation, in which they may, as it were, be heard complaining, and seen to mourn (Isa 14:31; Jer 14:2; Lam 1:4); and the daughter of Zion herself is utterly vacated, thoroughly emptied, completely deprived of all her former population; and in this state of the most mournful widowhood or orphanage, brought down from her lofty seat (Isa 47:1) and princely glory (Jer 13:18), she sits down upon the ground, just as Judaea is represented as doing upon Roman medals that were struck after the destruction of Jerusalem, where she is introduced as a woman thoroughly broken down, and sitting under a palm-tree in an attitude of despair, with a warrior standing in front of her, the inscription upon the medal being Judaea capta , or devicta . The Septuagint rendering is quite in accordance with the sense, viz., (cf., Luk 19:44), except that is not the second person, but the third, and the third pers. pret. niph. for – a pausal form which is frequently met with in connection with the smaller distinctive accents, such as silluk and athnach (here it occurs with tiphchah, as, for example, in Amo 3:8). The clause “sits down upon the ground” is appended – a frequent construction in cases where one of two verbs defines the other in a manner which is generally expressed adverbially (vid., 1Ch 13:2, and the inverted order of the words in Jer 4:5; cf., Isa 12:6): Zion sits upon the earth in a state of utter depopulation.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
26. Her gates shall mourn and lament. Hence arises the mourning of the gates, which, he threatens, will take place when they have met with their calamities; for he means, that where there were great crowds and multitudes, nothing but a dismal solitude will be found. We know that at that time public meetings were held at the gates; and, therefore, as the gates sometimes rejoice at the multitude of citizens, so they are said to mourn on account of their frightful desolation. And yet I do not deny that he compares Jerusalem to a woman who is sad, and who bewails her widowhood; for it was customary with mourners to sit on the ground, as that nation was in the habit of using ceremonies and outward signs to a greater degree than would be consistent with our customs. But the sum of the matter is that the city will have lost her inhabitants.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
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.
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
READER, while these humbling views of Israel’s transgressions are before us, let us bring home the affecting subject to our own hearts, and we shall find cause to cry out with the apostle: Are we better than they? No! in no wise; for the scripture hath concluded all under sin. We all partake in one common fallen nature, which in no instance, either in Jew or Gentile is free from sin. Reader, it is profitable at the reading of every chapter, and upon every renewed view of the subject, to have this in remembrance. May God the Holy Ghost, give us both to see and to know, and to have grace to make such improving reflections upon all we read concerning sin, that our own hearts may be affected in the consciousness of our own transgressions, while reading of the transgressions of others, and in the general punishment, when the Lord of Hosts doth at any time take away the stay and the staff; our bread and our water; not of the necessaries of life only, in the bread that perisheth in using, but of the spiritual life, without which, we perish forever: may we hear the rod; and who hath appointed it! Blessed Lord! let all thy chastisements be sanctified, and lead our hearts to thee, and not from thee; for thou art the Lord our God, amidst all our rebellions and all our backslidings.
And, Lord, in all thy dispensations, such as this chapter sets forth to thine Israel, still manifest thyself to us, as thou didst to them, that thou art the God of Israel, and hatest putting away. And though the departure from our God is general, in which the mighty man and the man of war, the child, and the ancient, are all alike involved in the transgression; and though the brother of the house of our Father after nature, cannot heal, neither clothe, nor be our ruler; yet, precious Jesus, thou art a brother born for adversity: therefore be thou, our ruler, and let all our ruin be brought under thy hand, and we shall be saved.
And will the Lord give grace to the daughters of Zion of the present hour, that while reading, in the conduct of those of the ancient house of Israel, the immodest conduct which became so offensive in the eyes of the Lord, they may have grace to make use of an apparel, suited to the humble followers of the blessed Jesus. Lord! give everyone among those, who name the name of Jesus, to study a modesty of dress suited to the Christian profession, and may they be adorned as the King’s daughter, all glorious within. Oh Lord! do thou clothe our souls with thy robe of righteousness, and we shall be then but little concerned how our sinful bodies are adorned: but having, food and raiment, be content. Lord, do thou enable us all to put off the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of our mind: And do thou put on us the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
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
And the king desolate.
Sitteth upon the ground.
a . – Nazian.
gates = entrances.
mourn. Occurs in “former” portion here, Isa 19:8 (as adjective); Isa 24:4, Isa 24:7; Isa 33:9; and in the “latter” portion, Isa 57:18 (as noun); Isa 60:20 (as noun); Isa 61:2, s(as adjective); Isa 66:10.
her gates: Jer 14:2, Lam 1:4
desolate: or, emptied, Heb. cleansed
shall sit: Isa 47:1, Job 2:8, Job 2:13, Lam 2:10, Eze 26:16, Luk 19:44
Reciprocal: Isa 4:1 – seven Isa 6:11 – Until the Isa 24:4 – mourneth Isa 49:21 – am desolate Isa 52:2 – Shake Jer 7:34 – for Jer 13:18 – sit Jer 15:8 – widows Lam 1:1 – sit Lam 2:8 – he made Lam 3:11 – he hath made Eze 12:20 – General 1Ti 5:5 – and desolate
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge