Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.
Declare ye it not at Gath - on the borders of Judea, one of the five cities of the Philistines who would exult at the calamity of the Hebrews. The language is derived from the elegy of David over Saul and Jonathan, "Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised tnumph" (2 Samuel 1:20). Gratify not those who exult over the falls of the Israel of God.
Weep ye not at all - do not betray your inward sorrow by outward weeping, within the cognizance of the enemy, lest they should exult at it. Reland translates, 'weep not in Accho,' х baakow (H1058), a contraction for bª`akow] - i:e., Ptolemais, now Jean d'Acre, near the foot of mount Carmel; allotted to Asher, but never occupied by that tribe (Judges 1:31, "Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho"). Accho's inhabitants would, therefore, like Gath's, rejoice at Israel's disaster. Thus the parallelism is best carried out in all the three clauses of the verse, and there is a similar play on sounds in each in the Hebrew х bª-Gat (H1661), Gath, resembling in sound the Hebrew, tagiyduw (H5046), for declare; Accho resembling the Hebrew, tibkuw (H1058), for weep; and Aphrah meaning dust, `aapaar (H6083)]. Pusey rightly objects that Reland's translation --
(1) Violates the Hebrew idiom of the emphatic use of the infinitive absolute with the finite verb;
(2) It supposes the omission of the tenacious Hebrew letter, `ayin (');
(3) Accho, or Acra, never was Israel's.
The prophet would not then forbid Judah to weep in a city which was not hers nor Israel's. While the Hebrews were not to expose their misery to foreigners, they ought to bewail it in their own cities - e.g., Aphrah or Ophrah (Joshua 18:23; 1 Samuel 13:17), in the tribe of Benjamin; or rather an Aphrah near Jerusalem (Rabbi Tanchum of Jerusalem). To roll in the dust marked deep sorrow (Jeremiah 6:26, "O daughter of my people ... wallow thyself in ashes;" Ezekiel 27:30).
For roll thyself in the dust, the Qeri' or Hebrew margin reading, the Kethibh or text reading is, 'I roll myself in the dust' х hitpalaashiy (H6428) instead of the Kethibh].