Isaiah 3:26

And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. HER GATES SHALL LAMENT. The place of concourse personified is represented mourning for the loss of those multitudes which once frequented it. SHE BEING DESOLATE SHALL SIT UPON THE 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, Judea capta (; ), whereas here, primarily, the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar is alluded to, but ultimately that under the Roman Titus. Remarks: When God takes away the earthly stays of men, they have nothing to fall back upon for help. Might, valour, and prudence avail only so long as God is not against a nation. These...

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....

16-26 The prophet reproves and warns the daughters of Zion of the sufferings coming upon them. Let them know that God notices the folly and vanity of proud women, even of their dress. The punishments threatened answered the sin. Loathsome diseases often are the just punishment of pride. It is not material to ask what sort of ornaments they wore; many of these things, if they had not been in fashion, would have been ridiculed then as now. Their fashions differed much from those of our times, but human nature is the same. Wasting time and money, to the neglect of piety, charity, and even of justice, displease the Lord. Many professors at the present day, seem to think there is no harm in worldly finery; but were it not a great evil, would the Holy Spirit have taught the prophet to expose it so fully? The Jews being overcome, Jerusalem would be levelled with the ground; which is represente...

Verse Isaiah 3:26. _SIT UPON THE GROUND._] Sitting on the ground was a posture that denoted mourning and deep distress. The prophet Jeremiah (Lamentations 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....

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; Lamentations 2:10;...

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 3:1 GOD'S JUDGMENT UPON JERUSALEM. The general denunciations against Israel of the two preceding chapters are here turned especially against Jerusalem. God will deprive her of all her superior and more honorable classes (Isaiah 3:1); and will give her "children" for her rulers (Isaiah 3:4). There will be continued oppression, and the rise of an insolent and undutiful spirit (Isaiah 3:5). Those fit to bear rule will refuse to do so (Isaiah 3:6,...

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. 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 hi

CHAPTER 3 Judgments upon the Rulers and the Daughters Of Zion 1. _The judgment against the rulers (Isaiah 3:1)_ 2. _Jerusalem's sad condition (Isaiah 3:8)_ 3. _Jehovah's message (Isaiah 3:10)_ 4. _The worldliness of the daughters of Zion (Isaiah 3:16)_ 5. _Their humiliation in judgment (Isaiah 3:24; Isaiah 4:1)_ This chapter describes the corrupt conditions among the professing people of God in Isaiah's day. A similar corruption and worldliness pr

ISAIAH 3:16 TO ISAIAH 4:1. THE LUXURIOUS LADIES OF JERUSALEM AND THEIR DOOM. As Amos attacked the women of Samaria for their luxury, made possible through the oppression of the poor (Amos 4:1), so Isaiah assails the luxury and haughtiness of the women. These West-end ladies, disdainful and affected, walking with short mincing steps, ogling the men with wanton glances, tinkling with their step-chains and making a clanging sound as they struck their ankle-rings together, will be smitten with leprous scab in their scalps, and be stripped bare of their finery. They will then offer a hideous contrast to their present magnificence for perfume the stench of scabs, the rope of captivity for the girdle, baldness of mourning ...

GATES. entrances. MOURN. Occurs in "former" portion here, Isaiah 19:8 (as adjective); Isaiah 24:4; Isaiah 24:7; Isaiah 33:9. and in the "latter" portion, Isaiah 57:18 (as noun); Isaiah 60:20 (as noun); Isaiah 61:2, s(as adjective); Isaiah 66:10....