What Does Isaiah 3:26 Mean in the King James?
And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew calls the gates “openings,” and even these thresholds grieve as the city sits desolate on the ground.
THE MEANING
The city’s grief is public: its openings mourn, and the city itself sits low on the ground. Desolation reaches both the thresholds and the place where the city dwells.
THE ROOT
פְּתָחֶיהָ
pətāḥêhā
GROWS FROM
פתח
To open, or make an opening.
The word translated “gates” literally points to openings. The threshold through which the city is entered becomes a place where its grief is heard.
ALSO GROWS
petaḥ: An opening or entrance.
פֶּתַח
It makes the gates’ role as the city’s openings visible in the verse.
pātaḥ: To open.
פָּתַח
The root links the gate to the act of opening, giving the grieving threshold a sense of what is now lost.
maphtēaḥ: A key.
מַפְתֵּחַ
This related word carries the idea of opening, echoing the access held at a city’s gates.
אָבְלוּ
ʾāḇəlû
GROWS FROM
אבל
To mourn or be in mourning.
“mourn” in this verse is ʾāḇəlû. The verse gives mourning to the gates themselves, making grief part of the city’s visible structure. The same root names mourning and the mourner, so grief is presented as a state that can inhabit the place.
ALSO GROWS
ʾēvel: Mourning or grief.
אֵבֶל
This noun names the grief embodied by the gates.
ʾāvēl: A mourner; one in mourning.
אָבֵל
This branch makes the verse’s personification concrete: the gates act as mourners.
תֵּשֵׁב
tēšēḇ
GROWS FROM
ישב
To sit, dwell, or remain.
The Hebrew root holds “sit” and “dwell” together. The city that is a place of habitation is now pictured seated on the ground, its dwelling made low.
ALSO GROWS
yāšaḇ: To sit, dwell, or remain.
יָשַׁב
It holds together the city’s posture and its condition as a place people inhabit.
mōšāḇ: A dwelling place or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
It echoes the city as a place of dwelling, now sitting desolate on the ground.
THE PATTERN
When a city is brought low, grief becomes visible in its thresholds and streets, not only in its inhabitants.
Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.THE THREAD
Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.Isaiah uses the root אבל (ʾ-b-l, “mourn”) for its gates; Jeremiah uses the same root for Judah’s mourning, then shows its gates brought low. The shared root carries the grief from the city’s inhabitants to its thresholds.
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