Jeremiah 6:26

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.”

Isaiah 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.

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. ⁵ 

Isaiah 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! ⁶ 

Joel 2:12-13

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, 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 

Amos 8:10

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 

[6:26]  ¹ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the context.

[6:26]  ² tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the translator’s note there.

[6:26]  ³ tn Heb “suddenly.”

[6:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “the destroyer.”

[22:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.” See the note at 15:2.

[32:11]  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.

[2:12]  ⁷ sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.

[2:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and great of loyal love.”

[2:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he relents from calamity.”

[8:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “mourning.”

[8:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”

[8:10]  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).

[8:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”

[8:10]  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.