Daniel 10:2-3

10:2 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three whole weeks. ¹  10:3 I ate no choice food; no meat or wine came to my lips, ²  nor did I anoint myself with oil ³  until the end of those three weeks.

Ezra 8:21

8:21 I called for a fast there by the Ahava Canal, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and seek from him a safe journey ⁴  for us, our children, and all our property.

Ezra 9:5

9:5 At the time of the evening offering I got up from my self-abasement, ⁵  with my tunic and robe torn, and then dropped to my knees and spread my hands to the Lord my God.

Ezra 10:6

10:6 Then Ezra got up from in front of the temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he stayed ⁶  there, he did not eat food or drink water, for he was in mourning over the infidelity of the exiles.

Nehemiah 1:4

1:4 When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, ⁷  crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Nehemiah 9:1

The People Acknowledge Their Sin before God

9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.

Esther 4:1-3

Esther Decides to Risk Everything in order to Help Her People

4:1 Now when Mordecai became aware of all that had been done, he ⁸  tore his garments and put on sackcloth and ashes. He went out into the city, crying out in a loud ⁹  and bitter voice. 4:2 But he went no further than the king’s gate, for no one was permitted to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. 4:3 Throughout each and every province where the king’s edict and law were announced ¹⁰  there was considerable ¹¹  mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. ¹²  Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic ¹³  of many.

Esther 4:16

4:16 “Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast in my behalf. Don’t eat and don’t drink for three days, night or day. My female attendants and I ¹⁴  will also fast in the same way. Afterward I will go to the king, even though it violates the law. ¹⁵  If I perish, I perish!”

Psalms 35:13

35:13 When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, ¹⁶ 

and refrained from eating food. ¹⁷ 

(If I am lying, may my prayers go unanswered!) ¹⁸ 

Psalms 69:10-11

69:10 I weep and refrain from eating food, ¹⁹ 

which causes others to insult me. ²⁰ 

69:11 I wear sackcloth

and they ridicule me. ²¹ 

Isaiah 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. ²² 

Joel 1:13

1:13 Get dressed ²³  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. ²⁴ 

Joel 2:12

An Appeal for Repentance

2:12 “Yet even now,” the Lord says,

“return to me with all your heart –

with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Tear your hearts, ²⁵ 

not just your garments!”

Jonah 3:6-9

3:6 When the news ²⁶  reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. 3:7 He issued a proclamation and said, ²⁷  “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water. 3:8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly ²⁸  to God, and everyone ²⁹  must turn from their ³⁰  evil way of living ³¹  and from the violence that they do. ³²  3:9 Who knows? ³³  Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent ³⁴  and turn from his fierce anger ³⁵  so that we might not die.” ³⁶ 

Luke 2:37

2:37 She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. ³⁷  She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. ³⁸ 

Acts 10:30

10:30 Cornelius ³⁹  replied, ⁴⁰  “Four days ago at this very hour, at three o’clock in the afternoon, ⁴¹  I was praying in my house, and suddenly ⁴²  a man in shining clothing stood before me

James 4:8-10

4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded. ⁴³  4:9 Grieve, mourn, ⁴⁴  and weep. Turn your laughter ⁴⁵  into mourning and your joy into despair. 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

[10:2]  ¹ tn Heb “three weeks of days.” The inclusion of “days” here and in v. 3 is perhaps intended to call attention to the fact that these weeks are very different in nature from those of chap. 9, which are “weeks of years.”

[10:3]  ² tn Heb “mouth.”

[10:3]  ³ sn Anointing oneself with oil (usually olive oil) was a common OT practice due to the severity of the Middle Eastern sun (cf. Ps 121:6). It was also associated with rejoicing (e.g., Prov 27:9) and was therefore usually not practiced during a period of mourning.

[8:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “a straight way.”

[9:5]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew word used here is a hapax legomenon. It refers to the self-abasement that accompanies religious sorrow and fasting.

[10:6]  ⁶ tc The translation reads וַיָּלֶן (vayyalen, “and he stayed”) rather than the reading וַיֵּלֶךְ (vayyelekh, “and he went”) of the MT. Cf. the LXX.

[1:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “sat down.” Context suggests that this was a rather sudden action, resulting from the emotional shock of the unpleasant news, so “abruptly” has been supplied in the present translation.

[4:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “Mordecai.” The pronoun (“he”) was used in the translation for stylistic reasons. A repetition of the proper name here is redundant in terms of contemporary English style.

[4:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “great.”

[4:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “reached” (so NAB, NLT); KJV, NASB, NIV “came”; TEV “wherever the king’s proclamation was made known.”

[4:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the Jews went into deep mourning.”

[4:3]  ¹² sn Although prayer is not specifically mentioned here, it is highly unlikely that appeals to God for help were not a part of this reaction to devastating news. As elsewhere in the book of Esther, the writer seems deliberately to keep religious actions in the background.

[4:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “were spread to many”; KJV, NIV “many (+ people NLT) lay in sackcloth and ashes.”

[4:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I and my female attendants.” The translation reverses the order for stylistic reasons.

[4:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “which is not according to the law” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “contrary to the law.”

[35:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth.” Sackcloth was worn by mourners. When the psalmist’s enemies were sick, he was sorry for their misfortune and mourned for them.

[35:13]  ¹⁷ sn Fasting was also a practice of mourners. By refraining from normal activities, such as eating food, the mourner demonstrated the sincerity of his sorrow.

[35:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and my prayer upon my chest will return.” One could translate, “but my prayer was returning upon my chest,” but the use of the imperfect verbal form sets this line apart from the preceding and following lines (vv. 13a, 14), which use the perfect to describe the psalmist’s past actions.

[69:10]  ¹⁹ sn Fasting was a practice of mourners. By refraining from normal activities such as eating food, the mourner demonstrated the sincerity of his sorrow.

[69:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and it becomes insults to me.”

[69:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “and I am an object of ridicule to them.”

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

[1:13]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn Heb “for grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.”

[2:12]  ²⁵ sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.

[3:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “word” or “matter.”

[3:7]  ²⁷ tn Contrary to many modern English versions, the present translation understands the king’s proclamation to begin after the phrase “and he said” (rather than after “in Nineveh”), as do quotations in 1:14; 2:2, 4; 4:2, 8, 9. In Jonah where the quotation does not begin immediately after “said” (אָמַר, ’amar), it is only the speaker or addressee or both that come between “said” and the start of the quotation (1:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 4:4, 9, 10; cf. 1:1; 3:1).

[3:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “with strength”; KJV, NRSV “mightily”; NAB, NCV “loudly”; NIV “urgently.”

[3:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “let them turn, a man from his evil way.” The alternation between the plural verb וְיָשֻׁבוּ (vÿyashuvu, “and let them turn”) and the singular noun אִישׁ (’ish, “a man, each one”) and the singular suffix on מִדַּרְכּוֹ (middarko, “from his way”) emphasizes that each and every person in the collective unity is called to repent.

[3:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “his.” See the preceding note on “one.”

[3:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “evil way.” For other examples of “way” as “way of living,” see Judg 2:17; Ps 107:17-22; Prov 4:25-27; 5:21.

[3:8]  ³² tn Heb “that is in their hands.” By speaking of the harm they did as “in their hands,” the king recognized the Ninevites’ personal awareness and immediate responsibility. The term “hands” is either a synecdoche of instrument (e.g., “Is not the hand of Joab in all this?” 2 Sam 14:19) or a synecdoche of part for the whole. The king's descriptive figure of speech reinforces their guilt.

[3:9]  ³³ sn The king expresses his uncertainty whether Jonah’s message constituted a conditional announcement or an unconditional decree. Jeremiah 18 emphasizes that God sometimes gives people an opportunity to repent when they hear an announcement of judgment. However, as Amos and Isaiah learned, if a people refused to repent over a period of time, the patience of God could be exhausted. The offer of repentance in a conditional announcement of judgment can be withdrawn and in its place an unconditional decree of judgment issued. In many cases it is difficult to determine on the front end whether or not a prophetic message of coming judgment is conditional or unconditional, thus explaining the king’s uncertainty.

[3:9]  ³⁴ tn “he might turn and relent.” The two verbs יָשׁוּב וְנִחַם (yashub vÿnikham) may function independently (“turn and repent”) or form a verbal hendiadys (“be willing to turn”; see IBHS 540 §32.3b). The imperfect יָשׁוּב and the perfect with prefixed vav וְנִחַם form a future-time narrative sequence. Both verbs function in a modal sense, denoting possibility, as the introductory interrogative suggests (“Who knows…?”). When used in reference to past actions, שׁוּב (shub) can mean “to be sorry” or “to regret” that someone did something in the past, and when used in reference to future planned actions, it can mean “to change one’s mind” about doing something or “to relent” from sending judgment (BDB 997 s.v. שׁוּב 6). The verb נִחַם (nikham) can mean “to be sorry” about past actions (e.g., Gen 6:6, 7; 1 Sam 15:11, 35) and “to change one’s mind” about future actions (BDB 637 s.v. נחם 2). These two verbs are used together elsewhere in passages that consider the question of whether or not God will change his mind and relent from judgment he has threatened (e.g., Jer 4:28). The verbal root שׁוּב is used four times in vv. 8-10, twice of the Ninevites “repenting” from their moral evil and twice of God “relenting” from his threatened calamity. This repetition creates a wordplay that emphasizes the appropriateness of God’s response: if the people repent, God might relent.

[3:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “from the burning of his nose/face.” See Exod 4:14; 22:24; 32:12; Num 25:4; 32:14; Deut 9:19.

[3:9]  ³⁶ tn The imperfect verb נֹאבֵד (no’ved, “we might not die”) functions in a modal sense, denoting possibility. The king’s hope parallels that of the ship’s captain in 1:6. See also Exod 32:7-14; 2 Sam 12:14-22; 1 Kgs 8:33-43; 21:17-29; Jer 18:6-8; Joel 2:11-15.

[2:37]  ³⁷ tn Grk “living with her husband for seven years from her virginity and she was a widow for eighty four years.” The chronology of the eighty-four years is unclear, since the final phrase could mean “she was widowed until the age of eighty-four” (so BDAG 423 s.v. ἕως 1.b.α). However, the more natural way to take the syntax is as a reference to the length of her widowhood, the subject of the clause, in which case Anna was about 105 years old (so D. L. Bock, Luke [BECNT], 1:251-52; I. H. Marshall, Luke, [NIGTC], 123-24).

[2:37]  ³⁸ sn The statements about Anna worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day make her extreme piety clear.

[10:30]  ³⁹ tn Grk “And Cornelius.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[10:30]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “said.”

[10:30]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “at the ninth hour.” Again, this is the hour of afternoon prayer.

[10:30]  ⁴² tn Grk “and behold.” The interjection ἰδού (idou) is difficult at times to translate into English. Here it has been translated as “suddenly” to convey the force of Cornelius’ account of the angel’s appearance.

[4:8]  ⁴³ tn Or “two-minded” (the same description used in 1:8).

[4:9]  ⁴⁴ tn This term and the following one are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

[4:9]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “let your laughter be turned.”