Leviticus 10:6

10:6 Then Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar his other two sons, “Do not ¹  dishevel the hair of your heads ²  and do not tear your garments, so that you do not die and so that wrath does not come on the whole congregation. Your brothers, all the house of Israel, are to mourn the burning which the Lord has caused, ³ 

Leviticus 10:2

10:2 So fire went out from the presence of the Lord ⁴  and consumed them so that they died before the Lord.

Leviticus 19:24

19:24 In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, praise offerings ⁵  to the Lord.

Leviticus 19:1

Religious and Social Regulations

19:1 The Lord spoke to Moses:

Leviticus 21:1-2

Rules for the Priests

21:1 The Lord said to Moses: “Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron – say to them, ‘For a dead person ⁶  no priest ⁷  is to defile himself among his people, ⁸  21:2 except for his close relative who is near to him: ⁹  his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother,

Leviticus 19:1

Religious and Social Regulations

19:1 The Lord spoke to Moses:

Ezra 9:3

9:3 When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and my robe and ripped out some of the hair from my head and beard. Then I sat down, quite devastated.

Esther 4:1-4

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 ¹⁰  tore his garments and put on sackcloth and ashes. He went out into the city, crying out in a loud ¹¹  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 ¹²  there was considerable ¹³  mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. ¹⁴  Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic ¹⁵  of many. 4:4 When Esther’s female attendants and her eunuchs came and informed her about Mordecai’s behavior, ¹⁶  the queen was overcome with anguish. Although she sent garments for Mordecai to put on so that he could remove his sackcloth, he would not accept them.

Job 1:20

1:20 Then Job got up ¹⁷  and tore his robe. ¹⁸  He shaved his head, ¹⁹  and then he threw himself down with his face to the ground. ²⁰ 

Job 2:12

2:12 But when they gazed intently ²¹  from a distance but did not recognize ²²  him, they began to weep loudly. Each of them tore his robes, and they threw dust into the air over their heads. ²³ 

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! ²⁴ 

Ezekiel 24:17

24:17 Groan in silence for the dead, ²⁵  but do not perform mourning rites. ²⁶  Bind on your turban ²⁷  and put your sandals on your feet. Do not cover your lip ²⁸  and do not eat food brought by others.” ²⁹ 

Ezekiel 24:23

24:23 Your turbans will be on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you will not mourn or weep, but you will rot ³⁰  for your iniquities ³¹  and groan among yourselves.

Ezekiel 26:16

26:16 All the princes of the sea will vacate ³²  their thrones. They will remove their robes and strip off their embroidered clothes; they will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground; they will tremble continually and be shocked at what has happened to you. ³³ 

Jonah 3:6

3:6 When the news ³⁴  reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes.

[10:6]  ¹ tc Smr has “you must not” (לֹא, lo’) rather than the MT’s “do not” (אַל, ’al; cf. the following negative לֹא, lo’, in the MT).

[10:6]  ² tn Heb “do not let free your heads.” Some have taken this to mean, “do not take off your headgear” (cf. NAB, NASB), but it probably also involves leaving one’s hair unkempt as a sign of mourning (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:608-9; cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[10:6]  ³ tn Heb “shall weep [for] the burning which the Lord has burned”; NIV “may mourn for those the Lord has destroyed by fire.”

[10:2]  ⁴ tn See the note on 9:24a.

[19:24]  ⁵ tn See B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132, where the translation reads “set aside for jubilation”; a special celebration before the Lord.

[21:1]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 19:28 above and the literature cited there).

[21:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “no one,” but “priest” has been used in the translation to clarify that these restrictions are limited to the priests, not to the Israelites in general (note the introductory formula, “say to the priests, the sons of Aaron”).

[21:1]  ⁸ tc The MT has “in his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.

[21:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “except for his flesh, the one near to him.”

[4:1]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “great.”

[4:3]  ¹² tn Heb “reached” (so NAB, NLT); KJV, NASB, NIV “came”; TEV “wherever the king’s proclamation was made known.”

[4:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the Jews went into deep mourning.”

[4:3]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “were spread to many”; KJV, NIV “many (+ people NLT) lay in sackcloth and ashes.”

[4:4]  ¹⁶ tn The words “about Mordecai’s behavior” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in translation for the sake of clarity. Cf. NIV, NLT “about Mordecai”; TEV, CEV “what Mordecai was doing.”

[1:20]  ¹⁷ tn The verb וַיָּקָם (vayyaqom, “and he arose”) indicates the intentionality and the rapidity of the actions to follow. It signals the beginning of his response to the terrible news. Therefore, the sentence could be translated, “Then Job immediately began to tear his robe.”

[1:20]  ¹⁸ sn It was the custom to tear the robe in a time of mourning, to indicate that the heart was torn (Joel 2:13). The “garment, mantel” here is the outer garment frequently worn over the basic tunic. See further D. R. Ap-Thomas, “Notes on Some Terms Relating to Prayer,” VT 6 (1956): 220-24.

[1:20]  ¹⁹ sn In mourning one normally put off every adornment that enhanced or embellished the person, including that which nature provided (Jer 7:29; Mic 1:16).

[1:20]  ²⁰ tn This last verb is the Hishtaphel of the word חָוָה (khavah; BDB 1005 s.v. שָׁחָה); it means “to prostrate oneself, to cause oneself to be low to the ground.” In the OT it is frequently translated “to worship” because that is usually why the individual would kneel down and then put his or her forehead to the ground at the knees. But the word essentially means “to bow down to the ground.” Here “worship” (although employed by several English translations, cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, CEV) conveys more than what is taking place – although Job’s response is certainly worshipful. See G. I. Davies, “A Note on the Etymology of histah^awah,” VT 29 (1979): 493-95; and J. A. Emerton, “The Etymology of histah^awah,” OTS (1977): 41-55.

[2:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “they lifted up their eyes.” The idiom “to lift up the eyes” (or “to lift up the voice”) is intended to show a special intensity in the effort. Here it would indicate that they were trying to see Job from a great distance away.

[2:12]  ²² tn The Hiphil perfect here should take the nuance of potential perfect – they were not able to recognize him. In other words, this does not mean that they did not know it was Job, only that he did not look anything like the Job they knew.

[2:12]  ²³ tn Heb “they tossed dust skyward over their heads.”

[32:11]  ²⁴ 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.

[24:17]  ²⁵ tn Or “Groan silently. As to the dead….” Cf. M. Greenberg’s suggestion that דֹּם מֵתִים (dom metim) be taken together and דֹּם be derived from ָדּמַם (damam, “to moan, murmur”). See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:508.

[24:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “(For) the dead mourning you shall not conduct.” In the Hebrew text the word translated “dead” is plural, indicating that mourning rites are in view. Such rites would involve outward demonstrations of one’s sorrow, including wailing and weeping.

[24:17]  ²⁷ sn The turban would normally be removed for mourning (Josh 7:6; 1 Sam 4:12).

[24:17]  ²⁸ sn Mourning rites included covering the lower part of the face. See Lev 13:45.

[24:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the bread of men.” The translation follows the suggestion accepted by M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 2:509) that this refers to a meal brought by comforters to the one mourning. Some repoint the consonantal text to read “the bread of despair” (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 2:56), while others, with support from the Targum and Vulgate, emend the consonantal text to read “the bread of mourners” (see D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:784).

[24:23]  ³⁰ tn The same verb appears in 4:17 and 33:10.

[24:23]  ³¹ tn Or “in your punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18:17, 18, 19, 20; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment” for iniquity or “guilt” of iniquity.

[26:16]  ³² tn Heb “descend from.”

[26:16]  ³³ tn Heb “and they will be astonished over you.”

[3:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “word” or “matter.”