From Nave’s Topical Bible
Sackcloth
Every passage the 1896 Nave’s Topical Biblegathers under this heading, in Nave’s own arrangement and then in Bible order. MannaFest has not written this page — it is the older index, transcribed, with the Word travelling beside each reference.
- 13Passages listed
- 10Books of the 66
- 1896Nave's edition
How Nave’s arranged it
- A symbol of mourning1 Kings 20:311 Kings 20:32Job 16:15Isaiah 15:3Jeremiah 4:8Jeremiah 6:26Jeremiah 49:3Lamentations 2:10Ezekiel 7:18Daniel 9:3Joel 1:8
- Worn by Jacob when it was reported to him that Joseph had been devoured by wild animalsGenesis 37:34
- Animals covered with, at a time of national mourningJonah 3:8
- See Mourning
The passages, in Bible order (13)
The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 13 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.
- Genesis 37:34
Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
Commentary on Genesis 37:341 voice
And Jacob rent his clothes,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- 1 Kings 20:31
Then the servants of Ben-hadad said to him, “Look now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful. Let us go out to the king of Israel with sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads. Perhaps he will spare your life.”
Commentary on 1 Kings 20:311 voice
And his servants said unto him,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- 1 Kings 20:32
So with sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their heads, they went to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please spare my life.’” And the king answered, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
Commentary on 1 Kings 20:321 voice
So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Job 16:15
I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust.
Commentary on Job 16:151 voice
Ver. 15. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and covered my flesh with ashes. What ought to be understood by 'sackcloth and ashes,' but penance; what by 'the skin' and 'the flesh,' but sin of the flesh? And so whereas there are persons who after the backsliding of the flesh are brought back to penance, it is as if 'sackcloth were sewn upon the skin,' and 'the flesh covered with ashes;' because the guilt of the flesh is 'covered with ashes' by penance, that it should not be seen for its avenging in the inquest of the strict Judge.
Gregory the Dialogist· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIII, 604Patristic
- Isaiah 15:3
In its streets they wear sackcloth; on the rooftops and in the public squares they all wail, falling down weeping.
Commentary on Isaiah 15:31 voice
(Version 3.) In the crossroads of it, they are girded with sacks; over its roofs, and in its streets, all wailing will descend into weeping. Private tears will not exist, public mourning will echo with public laments; neither married women, nor young maidens, nor the small age of children, nor the faltering steps of the elderly will be held back in their houses, extreme captivity will not know shame and weakness.
Jerome· Commentary on Isaiah, 420Patristic
- Jeremiah 4:8
So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”
Commentary on Jeremiah 4:81 voice
(Verse 8.) So gird yourselves with sackcloth, weep and howl, for the fierce anger of the Lord's fury has not turned away from us, or as the Septuagint translated, from you. We cannot avoid the lion and the most savage beast unless we repent and turn to the Lord, not only in our minds but also in our actions. For as long as he devastates the Church and the land of Judah, and also ravages Jerusalem, the clear anger of God is evident.
Jerome· Commentary on Jeremiah, 420Patristic
- Jeremiah 6:26
O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
Commentary on Jeremiah 6:262 voices
(Verse 26) Daughter of my people, gird yourself with sackcloth and sprinkle yourself with ashes, mourn for the only begotten (or beloved), make for yourself a bitter lament (or miserable), because the devastator (or misery) will come suddenly upon us (or upon you). For he had said before: Do not go out to the fields and do not walk along the road, for the sword of the enemy, panic is all around; and he had also forbidden flight, he teaches what they should do, namely, to repent, and to have this most firm and secure armor.
Jerome· Commentary on Jeremiah, 420Patristic
O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth,.... Either as a token of repentance for sin; so the king of Nineveh and his subjects did, to show their repentance, Jon 3:6 or as a sign of mourning, for the calamities coming on them, Gen 37:34. and wallow thyself in ashes; or roll thyself in them, as a token of the same. The Targum is, "cover your heads with ashes.'' Make thee mourning as for an only son; which of all is the most bitter: and therefore it is added, most bitter lamentation; see Zec 12:
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Jeremiah 49:3
Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed; cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth and mourn; run back and forth within your walls, for Milcom will go into exile together with his priests and officials.
Commentary on Jeremiah 49:31 voice
Howl, O Heshbon,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Lamentations 2:10
The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
Commentary on Lamentations 2:101 voice
The destruction of the miserable is mourned, due to reverence for their status. First, regarding elders who: "sit on the ground in silence." Namely, as signs of great sadness. Like Job 2:13: "And they sat with him on the ground seven days and nights and …
Thomas Aquinas· Commentary on Lamentations, 1274Patristic
- Ezekiel 7:18
They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.
Commentary on Ezekiel 7:181 voice
(Verse 18.) In every face there is confusion, and in every head there is baldness. The reddening of the face is a sign of shame, and the conscience of sins shines forth on the face. The hope of salvation is when shame follows sin. Therefore it was said to her who gloried in her sins with a hard heart: Your face has become like that of a prostitute, you do not know how to blush (Jer. 3:3).
Jerome· Commentary on Ezekiel, 420Patristic
- Daniel 9:3
So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
Commentary on Daniel 9:31 voice
Nor is it merely a change of nature, or aversion of perils or obliteration of sins but likewise the recognition of mysteries that fasts will merit from God. Look at Daniel's example.… In the first year of King Darius, when, after careful and repeated meditation on the times predicted by Jeremiah, he set his face to God in fasts and sackcloth and ashes. An angel was sent to him and immediately stated this had been the cause of the divine honor; he said, "I came to show you, wretched as you are," namely, because he had been fasting.
Tertullian· ON FASTING 7, 220Patristic
- Joel 1:8
Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.
Commentary on Joel 1:81 voice
(Verse 8.) Lament like a young woman dressed in sackcloth, over the man of your youth. (Vulgate: Lament like a young woman dressed in sackcloth, over her young husband). LXX: Lament to me over the bride dressed in sackcloth, over her young husband. The man of youth, or as the Septuagint translated, παρθενικὸς, which is commonly called virginal, because he is understood to be none other than God, who in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob betrothed himself to a pure bride untainted by any idolatrous filth.
Jerome· Commentary on Joel, 420Patristic
- Jonah 3:8
Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.
Commentary on Jonah 3:82 voices
Nor, indeed, ought this to influence us as a precedent for our daily life, that Joram, the wicked king of Israel, when surrounded by bands of his foes, rent his clothes, and is said to have had sackcloth inside them; or that the Ninevites, in order to mitigate the sentence of God, which had been pronounced against them by the prophet, were clothed in rough sackcloth.
John Cassian· The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Coenobia, Book 1, Chapter 2, 435Patristic
"For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
Jerome· Commentary on Jonah, Chapter 3, 420Patristic