6:26 So I said, 1 “Oh, my dear people, 2 put on sackcloth
and roll in ashes.
Mourn with painful sobs
as though you had lost your only child.
For any moment now 3 that destructive army 4
will come against us.”
15:3 In their streets they wear sackcloth;
on their roofs and in their town squares
all of them wail,
they fall down weeping.
22:12 At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning,
for shaved heads and sackcloth. 5
32:11 Tremble, you complacent ones!
Shake with fear, you carefree ones!
Strip off your clothes and expose yourselves –
put sackcloth on your waist! 6
2:12 “Yet even now,” the Lord says,
“return to me with all your heart –
with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
Tear your hearts, 7
not just your garments!”
2:13 Return to the Lord your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger and boundless in loyal love 8 – often relenting from calamitous punishment. 9
8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, 10
and all your songs into funeral dirges.
I will make everyone wear funeral clothes 11
and cause every head to be shaved bald. 12
I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; 13
when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. 14
1 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the context.
2 tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the translator’s note there.
3 tn Heb “suddenly.”
4 tn Heb “the destroyer.”
5 tn Heb “for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.” See the note at 15:2.
6 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.
7 sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.
8 tn Heb “and great of loyal love.”
9 tn Heb “and he relents from calamity.”
10 tn Heb “mourning.”
11 tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”
12 tn Heb “and make every head bald.” This could be understood in a variety of ways, while the ritual act of mourning typically involved shaving the head (although occasionally the hair could be torn out as a sign of mourning).
13 tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”
14 tn Heb “and its end will be like a bitter day.” The Hebrew preposition כְּ (kaf) sometimes carries the force of “in every respect,” indicating identity rather than mere comparison.