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.
Ver. 4. The ways of Zion do mourn.] So they seem to do because unfrequented, overgrown with grass, and out of their kindly order.
Her priests sigh.] For want of employment.
The virgins were afflicted.] Or, Discomfited. Those that are usually set upon the merry pin, and were wont to make mirth at those festivities,
And she is in bitterness.] Zion is; but for nothing so much as for the decay of religion, and the loss of holy exercises. When this befalleth, all things else are mere Ichabods to good people, a See Zephaniah 3:18 .
a Cultus Dei desertus est, et omnia luctifica. - Jun.