Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.
Come down, and sit in the dust - (note, Isaiah 3:26; Job 2:13; Lamentations 2:10.)
O virgin - i:e., heretofore uncaptured (Herodotus, 1: 191).
Daughter of Babylon - Babylon and its inhabitants (notes, Isaiah 1:8; Isaiah 37:22).
(There is) no throne. The seat of empire was transferred to Shushan. Alexander intended to have made Babylon his seat of empire; but Providence defeated his design. He soon died; and Seleucia, being built near, and out of its very materials, robbed it of its inhabitants, and even of its name, which was applied to Seleucia (cf. Jeremiah 51:37; Jeremiah 51:44; Jeremiah 51:58). Babylon has been for ages the quarry out of which neighbouring tribes have built their cities-Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Bagdad, Kufa, Hillah.
Thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate - alluding to the effeminate debauchery and prostitution of all classes, at banquets and religious rites (Curtius, 5: 1; Herodotus, 1: 199; Bar 6:43).