Genesis 37:34

37:34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, ¹  and mourned for his son many days.

Genesis 37:1

Joseph’s Dreams

37:1 But Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, ²  in the land of Canaan. ³ 

Genesis 21:16

21:16 Then she went and sat down by herself across from him at quite a distance, about a bowshot ⁴  away; for she thought, ⁵  “I refuse to watch the child die.” ⁶  So she sat across from him and wept uncontrollably. ⁷ 

Esther 4:1-2

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.

Job 16:15

16:15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, ¹⁰ 

and buried ¹¹  my horn ¹²  in the dust;

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. ¹³ 

Lamentations 2:10

י (Yod)

2:10 The elders of Daughter Zion

sit ¹⁴  on the ground in silence. ¹⁵ 

They have thrown dirt on their heads;

They have dressed in sackcloth. ¹⁶ 

Jerusalem’s young women ¹⁷  stare down at the ground. ¹⁸ 

John 3:5-8

3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁹  unless a person is born of water and spirit, ²⁰  he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, ²¹  and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 3:7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all ²²  be born from above.’ ²³  3:8 The wind ²⁴  blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ²⁵ 

[37:34]  ¹ tn Heb “and put sackcloth on his loins.”

[37:1]  ² tn Heb “the land of the sojournings of his father.”

[37:1]  ³ sn The next section begins with the heading This is the account of Jacob in Gen 37:2, so this verse actually forms part of the preceding section as a concluding contrast with Esau and his people. In contrast to all the settled and expanded population of Esau, Jacob was still moving about in the land without a permanent residence and without kings. Even if the Edomite king list was added later (as the reference to kings in Israel suggests), its placement here in contrast to Jacob and his descendants is important. Certainly the text deals with Esau before dealing with Jacob – that is the pattern. But the detail is so great in chap. 36 that the contrast cannot be missed.

[21:16]  ⁴ sn A bowshot would be a distance of about a hundred yards (ninety meters).

[21:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “said.”

[21:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will not look on the death of the child.” The cohortative verbal form (note the negative particle אַל,’al) here expresses her resolve to avoid the stated action.

[21:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “and she lifted up her voice and wept” (that is, she wept uncontrollably). The LXX reads “he” (referring to Ishmael) rather than “she” (referring to Hagar), but this is probably an attempt to harmonize this verse with the following one, which refers to the boy’s cries.

[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.”

[16:15]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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).

[22:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.” See the note at 15:2.

[2:10]  ¹⁴ tc Consonantal ישׁבו (yshvy) is vocalized by the MT as יֵשְׁבוּ (yeshvu), Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine plural from יָשַׁב (yashav, “to sit”): “they sit on the ground.” However, the ancient versions (Aramaic Targum, Greek Septuagint, Syriac Peshitta, Latin Vulgate) reflect an alternate vocalization tradition of יָשְׁבוּ (yashvu), Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine plural from שׁוּב (shuv, “to return”): “they return to the ground (= the grave).” The parallelism with the following line favors the MT.

[2:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they sit on the ground, they are silent.” Based on meter, the two verbs יִדְּמוּ…יֵשְׁבוּ (yeshvu…yidÿmu, “they sit…they are silent”) are in the same half of the line. Joined without a ו (vav) conjunction they form a verbal hendiadys. The first functions in its full verbal sense while the second functions adverbially: “they sit in silence.” The verb יִדְּמוּ (yidÿmu) may mean to be silent or to wail.

[2:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “they have girded themselves with sackcloth.”

[2:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the virgins of Jerusalem.” The term “virgins” is a metonymy of association, standing for single young women who are not yet married. These single women are in grief because their potential suitors have been killed. The elders, old men, and young women function together as a merism for all of the survivors (F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Lamentations [IBC], 92).

[2:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “have bowed down their heads to the ground.”

[3:5]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:5]  ²⁰ tn Or “born of water and wind” (the same Greek word, πνεύματος [pneumatos], may be translated either “spirit/Spirit” or “wind”).

[3:6]  ²¹ sn What is born of the flesh is flesh, i.e., what is born of physical heritage is physical. (It is interesting to compare this terminology with that of the dialogue in John 4, especially 4:23, 24.) For John the “flesh” (σάρξ, sarx) emphasizes merely the weakness and mortality of the creature – a neutral term, not necessarily sinful as in Paul. This is confirmed by the reference in John 1:14 to the Logos becoming “flesh.” The author avoids associating sinfulness with the incarnate Christ.

[3:7]  ²² tn “All” has been supplied to indicate the plural pronoun in the Greek text.

[3:7]  ²³ tn Or “born again.” The same Greek word with the same double meaning occurs in v. 3.

[3:8]  ²⁴ tn The same Greek word, πνεύματος (pneumatos), may be translated “wind” or “spirit.”

[3:8]  ²⁵ sn Again, the physical illustrates the spiritual, although the force is heightened by the word-play here on wind-spirit (see the note on wind at the beginning of this verse). By the end of the verse, however, the final usage of πνεύματος (pneumatos) refers to the Holy Spirit.