Bible Strands
Isaiah 3:26
And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses Zion immediately after detailing the slaughter of its men and warriors by the sword (Isaiah 3:25). The text states that the city's gates will lament and mourn, and the city itself will sit destitute on the ground.
The words — אָבְל֥וּ (a.ve.Lu) translates literally as "they will mourn," and נִקָּ֖תָה (ni.Ka.tah) means "it will be emptied." These verbs describe the forced desolation of the city's infrastructure and its abandonment.
The thread — The motif of mourning gates and sitting on the ground recurs in Jeremiah 14:2 and Lamentations 2:10, where elders sit in silence wearing sackcloth and dust. Lamentations 1:4 adds that the roads to Zion mourn and its gates remain deserted as worship ceases.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge that national collapse produces visible, structural ruin. It demands acceptance that the cessation of civic and religious life is the direct consequence of the preceding violence.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 14:2 “Judah mourns and her gates languish. Her people wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.
- Lamentations 2:10 The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
- Lamentations 1:4 The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.
- Job 2:13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.
- Job 2:8 And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes.
- Ezekiel 26:16 All the princes of the sea will descend from their thrones, remove their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments. Clothed with terror, they will sit on the ground, trembling every moment, appalled over you.
- Luke 19:44 They will level you to the ground—you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”
- Isaiah 47:1 “Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of the Chaldeans! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate.