'Sackcloth' in the Bible

So Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.

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

And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until it rained on them from the sky; and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night.

His servants said to him, “Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings, please let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will save your life.”

So they girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’” And he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”

It came about when Ahab heard these words, that he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted, and he lay in sackcloth and went about despondently.

When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body.

And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord.

Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

Then David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces.

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth and with dirt upon them.

When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly.

He went as far as the king’s gate, for no one was to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth.

In each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.

Then Esther’s maidens and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen writhed in great anguish. And she sent garments to clothe Mordecai that he might remove his sackcloth from him, but he did not accept them.

“I have sewed sackcloth over my skinAnd thrust my horn in the dust.

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth;I humbled my soul with fasting,And my prayer kept returning to my bosom.

When I made sackcloth my clothing,I became a byword to them.

Now it will come about that instead of sweet perfume there will be putrefaction;Instead of a belt, a rope;Instead of well-set hair, a plucked-out scalp;Instead of fine clothes, a donning of sackcloth;And branding instead of beauty.

In their streets they have girded themselves with sackcloth;On their housetops and in their squaresEveryone is wailing, dissolved in tears.

at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your shoes off your feet.” And he did so, going naked and barefoot.

Therefore in that day the Lord God of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing,To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth.

Tremble, you women who are at ease;Be troubled, you complacent daughters;Strip, undress and put sackcloth on your waist,

And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord.

Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

“I clothe the heavens with blacknessAnd make sackcloth their covering.”

“Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself?Is it for bowing one’s head like a reedAnd for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?

“For this, put on sackcloth,Lament and wail;For the fierce anger of the LordHas not turned back from us.”

O daughter of my people, put on sackclothAnd roll in ashes;Mourn as for an only son,A lamentation most bitter.For suddenly the destroyerWill come upon us.

For every head is bald and every beard cut short; there are gashes on all the hands and sackcloth on the loins.

“Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed!Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah,Gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament,And rush back and forth inside the walls;For Malcam will go into exileTogether with his priests and his princes.

The elders of the daughter of ZionSit on the ground, they are silent.They have thrown dust on their heads;They have girded themselves with sackcloth.The virgins of JerusalemHave bowed their heads to the ground.

They will gird themselves with sackcloth and shuddering will overwhelm them; and shame will be on all faces and baldness on all their heads.

“Also they will make themselves bald for youAnd gird themselves with sackcloth;And they will weep for you in bitterness of soulWith bitter mourning.

So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

Wail like a virgin girded with sackclothFor the bridegroom of her youth.

Gird yourselves with sackclothAnd lament, O priests;Wail, O ministers of the altar!Come, spend the night in sackclothO ministers of my God,For the grain offering and the drink offeringAre withheld from the house of your God.

“Then I will turn your festivals into mourningAnd all your songs into lamentation;And I will bring sackcloth on everyone’s loinsAnd baldness on every head.And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son,And the end of it will be like a bitter day.

Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.

But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.