2 Samuel 3:31

3:31 David instructed Joab and all the people who were with him, “Tear your clothes! Put on sackcloth! Lament before Abner!” Now King David followed ¹  behind the funeral bier.

2 Samuel 3:1

3:1 However, the war was prolonged between the house of Saul and the house of David. David was becoming steadily stronger, while the house of Saul was becoming increasingly weaker.

1 Raja-raja 20:31

20:31 His advisers ²  said to him, “Look, we have heard that the kings of the Israelite dynasty are kind. ³  Allow us to put sackcloth around our waists and ropes on our heads ⁴  and surrender ⁵  to the king of Israel. Maybe he will spare our lives.”

1 Raja-raja 21:27

21:27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He slept in sackcloth and walked around dejected.

1 Raja-raja 21:2

21:2 Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard so I can make a vegetable garden out of it, for it is adjacent to my palace. I will give you an even better vineyard in its place, or if you prefer, ⁶  I will pay you silver for it.” ⁷ 

1 Raja-raja 6:30

6:30 He plated the floor of the temple with gold, inside and out. ⁸ 

1 Raja-raja 19:1-2

Elijah Runs for His Life

19:1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, including a detailed account of how he killed all the prophets with the sword. 19:2 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this warning, ⁹  “May the gods judge me severely ¹⁰  if by this time tomorrow I do not take your life as you did theirs!” ¹¹ 

Ayub 16:15

16:15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, ¹² 

and buried ¹³  my horn ¹⁴  in the dust;

Mazmur 69:12

69:12 Those who sit at the city gate gossip about me;

drunkards mock me in their songs. ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 3:24

3:24 A putrid stench will replace the smell of spices, ¹⁶ 

a rope will replace a belt,

baldness will replace braided locks of hair,

a sackcloth garment will replace a fine robe,

and a prisoner’s brand will replace beauty.

Yesaya 15:3

15:3 In their streets they wear sackcloth;

on their roofs and in their town squares

all of them wail,

they fall down weeping.

Yesaya 22:12

22:12 At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning,

for shaved heads and sackcloth. ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 32:11

32:11 Tremble, you complacent ones!

Shake with fear, you carefree ones!

Strip off your clothes and expose yourselves –

put sackcloth on your waist! ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 37:1

37:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, ¹⁹  he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple.

Yeremia 48:37

48:37 For all of them will shave their heads in mourning.

They will all cut off their beards to show their sorrow.

They will all make gashes in their hands.

They will all put on sackcloth. ²⁰ 

Yeremia 49:3

49:3 Wail, you people in Heshbon, because Ai in Ammon is destroyed.

Cry out in anguish, you people in the villages surrounding ²¹  Rabbah.

Put on sackcloth and cry out in mourning.

Run about covered with gashes. ²² 

For your god Milcom will go into exile

along with his priests and officials. ²³ 

Yoel 1:13

1:13 Get dressed ²⁴  and lament, you priests!

Wail, you who minister at the altar!

Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God,

because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple of your God anymore. ²⁵ 

[3:31]  ¹ tn Heb “was walking.”

[20:31]  ² tn Or “servants.”

[20:31]  ³ tn Or “merciful.” The word used here often means “devoted” or “loyal.” Perhaps the idea is that the Israelite kings are willing to make treaties with other kings.

[20:31]  ⁴ sn Sackcloth was worn as a sign of sorrow and repentance. The precise significance of the ropes on the head is uncertain, but it probably was a sign of submission. These actions were comparable to raising a white flag on the battlefield or throwing in the towel in a boxing match.

[20:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “go out.”

[21:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “if it is good in your eyes.”

[21:2]  ⁷ tc The Old Greek translation includes the following words: “And it will be mine as a garden of herbs.”

[6:30]  ⁸ sn Inside and out probably refers to the inner and outer rooms within the building.

[19:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “saying.”

[19:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “So may the gods do to me, and so may they add.”

[19:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I do not make your life like the life of one of them.”

[16:15]  ¹² sn The language is hyperbolic; Job is saying that the sackcloth he has put on in his lamentable state is now stuck to his skin as if he had stitched it into the skin. It is now a habitual garment that he never takes off.

[16:15]  ¹³ tn The Poel עֹלַלְתִּי (’olalti) from עָלַל (’alal, “to enter”) has here the meaning of “to thrust in.” The activity is the opposite of “raising high the horn,” a picture of dignity and victory.

[16:15]  ¹⁴ tn There is no English term that captures exactly what “horn” is meant to do. Drawn from the animal world, the image was meant to convey strength and pride and victory. Some modern commentators have made other proposals for the line. Svi Rin suggested from Ugaritic that the verb be translated “lower” or “dip” (“Ugaritic – Old Testament Affinities,” BZ 7 [1963]: 22-33).

[69:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the mocking songs of the drinkers of beer.”

[3:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and it will be in place of spices there will be a stench.” The nouns for “spices” and “stench” are right next to each other in the MT for emphatic contrast. The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[22:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.” See the note at 15:2.

[32:11]  ¹⁸ tn The imperatival forms in v. 11 are problematic. The first (חִרְדוּ, khirdu, “tremble”) is masculine plural in form, though spoken to a feminine plural addressee (שַׁאֲנַנּוֹת, sha’anannot, “complacent ones”). The four imperatival forms that follow (רְגָזָה, rÿgazah, “shake with fear”; פְּשֹׁטָה, pÿshotah, “strip off your clothes”; עֹרָה, ’orah, “expose yourselves”; and חֲגוֹרָה, khagorah, “put on”) all appear to be lengthened (so-called “emphatic”) masculine singular forms, even though they too appear to be spoken to a feminine plural addressee. GKC 131-32 §48.i suggests emending חִרְדוּ (khirdu) to חֲרָדָה (kharadah) and understanding all five imperatives as feminine plural “aramaized” forms.

[37:1]  ¹⁹ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[48:37]  ²⁰ tn Heb “upon every loin [there is] sackcloth.” The word “all” is restored here before “loin” with a number of Hebrew mss and a number of versions. The words “in mourning” and “to show their sorrow” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to give the average reader some idea of the significance of these acts.

[48:37]  sn The actions referred to here were all acts that were used to mourn the dead (cf. Isa 15:2-3).

[49:3]  ²¹ tn Or “you women of Rabbah”; Heb “daughters of Rabbah.” It is difficult to tell whether the word “daughters” is used here in the same sense that it has in v. 2 (see the translator’s note there) or in the literal sense of “daughters.” The former has been preferred because the cities themselves (e.g., Heshbon) are called to wail in the earlier part of the verse and the term “daughters” has been used in the previous verse of the surrounding villages.

[49:3]  ²² tc Or “Run back and forth inside the walls of your towns.” Or “slash yourselves with gashes.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. The Hebrew text reads “run back and forth among the walls.” The word “run back and forth” is generally taken as a Hitpolel of a verb that means to “go about” in the Qal and to “go back and forth” in the Polel (cf. BDB 1002 s.v. I שׁוּט). The noun that follows in the Hebrew means “wall, hedge” and is quite commonly modified by the noun צֹאן (tso’n, “sheep”) referring to sheepfolds (cf., e.g., Num 32:36; 1 Sam 24:3). But the phrase “run back and forth among the sheepfolds” yields little meaning here. In Ps 89:40 (89:41 HT) the word “wall” is used in parallelism with fortified cities and refers to the walls of the city. That is the sense that is assumed in one of the alternate translations with the words “of your towns” being supplied in the translation for clarification. However, that figure is a little odd in a context which speaks of mourning rites. Hence, some emend the word “walls” (גְּדֵרוֹת, gÿderot) to “gashes” (גְּדֻדוֹת, gÿdudot), a word that has occurred in a similar context in Jer 48:37. That would involve only the common confusion of ר and ד. That is the reading adopted here and fits the context nicely. NRSV appears to go one step further and read the verb as a Hitpolel from a root that is otherwise used only as a noun to mean “whip” or “scourge.” NRSV reads “slash yourselves with whips” which also makes excellent sense in the context but is not supported by any parallel use of the verb.

[49:3]  ²³ sn Compare Jer 48:7 and the study note there.

[1:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “put on.” There is no object present in the Hebrew text, but many translations assume “sackcloth” to be the understood object of the verb “put on.” Its absence in the Hebrew text of v. 13 is probably due to metrical considerations. The meter here is 3 + 3, and that has probably influenced the prophet’s choice of words.

[1:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “for grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.”