Isaiah 3:26

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; Lamentations 2:10, where, as here primarily, the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar is alluded to).

that day—the calamitous period described in previous chapter.

seven—indefinite number among the Jews. So many men would be slain, that there would be very many more women than men; for example, seven women, contrary to their natural bashfulness, would sue to (equivalent to "take hold of," Isaiah 3:6) one man to marry them.

eat . . . own bread—foregoing the privileges, which the law (Exodus 21:10) gives to wives, when a man has more than one.

reproach—of being unwedded and childless; especially felt among the Jews, who were looking for "the seed of the woman," Jesus Christ, described in Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 54:1, Isaiah 54:4; Luke 1:25.