They are black unto the ground - The people assembled at the gates, the usual places of gathering, are in deep mourning and sit hum…

The gates thereof languish. —The “gates” of the cities, as the chief places of assembly (much like the agora of …

The distress in the land was so great that the city gates, where, in more prosperous times, business transactions took place, and meetings of the p…

The Prophet suggests in these words that the scarcity would be so great as to appear to be a manifest and remarkable evidence of God’s vengeance. F…

Judah mourneth. That is, the inhabitants of Judah; those of the house of Judah, as the Targum; these mourned because of t…

The people were in tears. But it was the cry of their trouble and their sin, rather than of their prayer. Let us be thankful for the mercy of water…

1. Here, the prophet begins to intercede with his prayer to God on their behalf, so that they might obtain mercy in some way, at least after…