God’s Word Translation
Isaiah 3:26
26The gates of Zion will cry and grieve, and Zion will sit on the ground, exhausted.
Isaiah 3:26 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
- New International Version (NIV)The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
- English Standard Version (ESV)And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Her gates shall lament and mourn, And she being desolate shall sit on the ground.
Context of Isaiah 3:26
24Instead of the smell of perfume, there will be the smell of decay. They will wear ropes instead of belts. They will have bald heads instead of beautiful hair. They will wear sackcloth instead of expensive clothes. Their beauty will be scarred. 25⌞Women,⌟ your warriors will die in combat. Your mighty men will die in battle. The gates of Zion will cry and grieve, and Zion will sit on the ground, exhausted.
Read all of Isaiah 3Isaiah 3:26 word by word
וְאָנ֥וּ וְאָבְל֖וּ פְּתָחֶ֑יהָ וְנִקָּ֖תָה לָאָ֥רֶץ תֵּשֵֽׁב׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Isaiah 3:26
- Jeremiah 14:2Judah mourns; its gates fall apart. The people of Judah sit in mourning on the ground. Their cry goes up from Jerusalem.
- Lamentations 1:4“The roads to Zion are deserted. No one comes to the annual festivals. No one passes through any of its gates. Its priests are groaning. Its young women are made to suffer. Zion is bitter.
- Isaiah 47:1Go, sit in the dirt, virgin princess of Babylon! Sit on the ground, not on a throne, princess of the Babylonians! You will no longer be called soft and delicate.
- Job 2:8Job took a piece of broken pottery to scratch himself as he sat in the ashes.
- Lamentations 2:10The respected leaders of Zion’s people sit silently on the ground. They throw dirt on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.
- Ezekiel 26:16Then the princes from the coast will come down from their thrones. They will remove their robes and take off their embroidered clothes. Dressed in terror, they will sit on the ground. They will tremble constantly and be shocked at you.
- Luke 19:44They will level you to the ground and kill your people. One stone will not be left on top of another, because you didn’t recognize the time when God came to help you.”
Commentaries on Isaiah 3:26
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 26Sit 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…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 26And 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…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 16-26Verses 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…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 16-26TThis passage applies the prophet’s teaching on arrogance (see Isaiah 2:11–12) to the people of Jerusalem. An alternate understanding is that this passage applies specifically to the women of Jerusalem.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2626. gates--The place of concourse personified is represented mourning for the loss of those multitudes which once frequented it. desolate ... sit upon ... 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, Judæa capta (Job 2:13; La 2:10, where, as here primarily, the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar is alluded to).Read the comment
Topics related to Isaiah 3:26
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Isaiah 3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
Commentaries