Isaiah 3:26. Her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
Sitting on the ground was a posture which denoted deep distress. When Job’s friends came to sympathize with him, “they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great” (Job 2:13). When the Jews were in captivity, it is said, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion” (Psa. 137:1). Jeremiah also alludes to the same custom in Lamentations 2:10; 3:28. The same idea is represented in a more intensified form in the expressions, “wallow thyself in ashes” (Jer. 6:26) and “roll thyself in the dust” (Mic. 1:10).
Most of the Roman coins which were struck in commemoration of the capture of Jerusalem have on one side the figure of a woman sitting on the ground, usually, though not in every instance, under the shade of a palm tree. The figure is generally represented with one hand to the head, which rests upon it inclining forward, and the other hanging over the knee, thus presenting a picture of great grief. In one instance, however, the hands are tied behind the back. These coins were issued during the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, some of them being struck in Judea, and come in Rome. They are of gold, silver, and brass, and give an apt illustration of the custom referred to in the text. Representations and descriptions of all these coins may be found in Madden's History of Jewish Coinage, etc., chap. 8.