Esther 4:3

4:3 Throughout each and every province where the king’s edict and law were announced ¹  there was considerable ²  mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. ³  Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic ⁴  of many.

Joshua 7:6

7:6 Joshua tore his clothes; ⁵  he and the leaders ⁶  of Israel lay face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord until evening ⁷  and threw dirt on their heads. ⁸ 

Joshua 7:2

7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho ⁹  to Ai (which is located near Beth Aven, east of Bethel ¹⁰ ) and instructed them, “Go up and spy on the land.” So the men went up and spied on Ai.

Joshua 13:19

13:19 Kiriathaim, Sibmah, Zereth Shahar on the hill in the valley,

Job 2:8

2:8 Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape ¹¹  himself ¹²  with while he was sitting ¹³  among the ashes. ¹⁴ 

Job 42:6

42:6 Therefore I despise myself, ¹⁵ 

and I repent in dust and ashes!

Isaiah 58:5

58:5 Is this really the kind of fasting I want? ¹⁶ 

Do I want a day when people merely humble themselves, ¹⁷ 

bowing their heads like a reed

and stretching out ¹⁸  on sackcloth and ashes?

Is this really what you call a fast,

a day that is pleasing to the Lord?

Ezekiel 27:30

27:30 They will lament loudly ¹⁹  over you and cry bitterly.

They will throw dust on their heads and roll in the ashes; ²⁰ 

Daniel 9:3

9:3 So I turned my attention ²¹  to the Lord God ²²  to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. ²³ 

Jonah 3:6

3:6 When the news ²⁴  reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes.

Matthew 11:21

11:21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! ²⁵  Woe to you, Bethsaida! If ²⁶  the miracles ²⁷  done in you had been done in Tyre ²⁸  and Sidon, ²⁹  they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

[4:3]  ¹ tn Heb “reached” (so NAB, NLT); KJV, NASB, NIV “came”; TEV “wherever the king’s proclamation was made known.”

[4:3]  ² tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the Jews went into deep mourning.”

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

[7:6]  ⁵ sn Tearing one’s clothes was an outward expression of extreme sorrow (see Gen 37:34; 44:13).

[7:6]  ⁶ tn Or “elders.”

[7:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “and fell on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel.”

[7:6]  ⁸ sn Throwing dirt on one’s head was an outward expression of extreme sorrow (see Lam 2:10; Ezek 27:30).

[7:2]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[7:2]  ¹⁰ map For the location of Bethel see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn The verb גָּרַד (garad) is a hapax legomenon (only occurring here). Modern Hebrew has retained a meaning “to scrape,” which is what the cognate Syriac and Arabic indicate. In the Hitpael it would mean “scrape himself.”

[2:8]  ¹² sn The disease required constant attention. The infection and pus had to be scraped away with a piece of broken pottery in order to prevent the spread of the infection. The skin was so disfigured that even his friends did not recognize him (2:12). The book will add that the disease afflicted him inwardly, giving him a foul breath and a loathsome smell (19:17, 20). The sores bred worms; they opened and ran, and closed and tightened (16:8). He was tormented with dreams (7:14). He felt like he was choking (7:14). His bones were racked with burning pain (30:30). And he was not able to rise from his place (19:18). The disease was incurable; but it would last for years, leaving the patient longing for death.

[2:8]  ¹³ tn The construction uses the disjunctive vav (ו) with the independent pronoun with the active participle. The construction connects this clause with what has just been said, making this a circumstantial clause.

[2:8]  ¹⁴ sn Among the ashes. It is likely that the “ashes” refers to the place outside the city where the rubbish was collected and burnt, i.e., the ash-heap (cf. CEV). This is the understanding of the LXX, which reads “dung-hill outside the city.”

[42:6]  ¹⁵ tn Or “despise what I said.” There is no object on the verb; Job could be despising himself or the things he said (see L. J. Kuyper, “Repentance of Job,” VT 9 [1959]: 91-94).

[58:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “choose” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB “wish.”

[58:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a day when man humbles himself.” The words “Do I want” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[58:5]  ¹⁸ tn Or “making [their] bed.”

[27:30]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “make heard over you with their voice.”

[27:30]  ²⁰ tn Note a similar expression to “roll in the ashes” in Mic 1:10.

[9:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “face.”

[9:3]  ²² tn The Hebrew phrase translated “Lord God” here is אֲדֹנָי הָאֱלֹהִים (’adonay ha’elohim).

[9:3]  ²³ sn When lamenting, ancient Israelites would fast, wear sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads to show their sorrow and contrition.

[3:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “word” or “matter.”

[11:21]  ²⁵ sn Chorazin was a town of Galilee that was probably fairly small in contrast to Bethsaida and is otherwise unattested. Bethsaida was declared a polis by the tetrarch Herod Philip, sometime after a.d. 30.

[11:21]  ²⁶ tn This introduces a second class (contrary to fact) condition in the Greek text.

[11:21]  ²⁷ tn Or “powerful deeds.”

[11:21]  ²⁸ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[11:21]  ²⁹ sn Tyre and Sidon are two other notorious OT cities (Isa 23; Jer 25:22; 47:4). The remark is a severe rebuke, in effect: “Even the sinners of the old era would have responded to the proclamation of the kingdom, unlike you!”