gates - The place of concourse personified is represented mourning for the loss of those multitudes which once frequented it.
desolate ... sit upon ... ground - the very figure under which Judea was represented on medals after the destruction by Titus: a female sitting under a palm tree in a posture of grief; the motto, Judaea capta (Job 2:13; Lam 2:10, where, as here primarily, the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar is alluded to).