'Gird Yourselves' in the Bible

Then David said to Joab and to all the people with him, “Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner.” And King David walked behind the bier.

“Be broken [in pieces], O peoples, and be shattered!Listen, all you [our enemies from the] far countries.Prepare yourselves [for war], and be shattered;Prepare yourselves [for war], and be shattered.

Listen carefully, all you who kindle your own fire [devising your own man-made plan of salvation],Who surround yourselves with torches,Walk by the light of your [self-made] fireAnd among the torches that you have set ablaze.But this you will have from My hand:You will lie down in [a place of] torment.

“For this reason, put on sackcloth [for mourning],Lament (mourn with expressions of grief for the dead) and wail,For the fierce anger of the LordHas not turned back from us.”

“Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai [in Ammon] has been destroyed!Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah!Wrap yourselves with sackcloth and lament (cry out in grief),And rush back and forth inside the enclosures;For Malcam [your powerless god] will go into exileTogether with his priests and his princes.

Clothe yourselves with sackclothAnd lament (cry out in grief), O priests;Wail, O ministers of the altar!Come, spend the night in sackcloth [and pray without ceasing],O ministers of my God,For the grain offering and the drink offeringAre withheld from the house of your God.