'Sackcloth' in the Bible

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

And anything on which {one of them} falls at their death shall become unclean: any object of wood or garment or skin or sackcloth--any object that has performed work--must be placed in water, and it shall be unclean until the evening, and [then] it shall be clean.

David said to Joab and to all the people who [were] with him, "Tear your clothing and put on sackcloth and mourn before Abner." Now King David [was] following after the bier.

Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took the sackcloth, and she spread it for herself on the rock at the beginning of the harvest until water gushed forth on them from heaven, but she did not allow the birds of heaven to rest on them by day nor the animals of the field by night.

Then his servants said to him, "Please now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are kings of mercy. Let us now put sackcloth on around our waists and ropes on our heads. Then let us go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps {he will let you live}."

So they tied sackcloth around their waists and ropes on their heads. Then they went to the king of Israel and said, "Your servant Ben-Hadad says, 'Please let me live.'" And he said, "[Is] my brother still alive?"

When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth over his flesh, fasted, lay in the sackcloth, and went about dejectedly.

It happened that when the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. Now he had been walking on the wall, and the people saw, and behold, sackcloth was over his flesh underneath.

It happened that when King Hezekiah heard, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went [to] the temple of Yahweh.

He sent Eliakim who [was] over the palace, Shebna the secretary, the elders, and the priests, [all] clothed in sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between earth and heaven, with his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.

Mordecai learned all that had been done and he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. And he went through the middle of the city and cried out a loud and bitter cry;

he went up to the entrance of the gate of the king, for he could not go to the gate of the king in sackcloth.

In every province [each] place where the king's edict and his law came, there [was] great mourning for the Jews with fasting, crying, wailing, [and] sackcloth; and ashes were spread out as a bed for them.

And Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and they told her, and the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he might remove his sackcloth--but he did not accept [them].

"I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and I have inserted {my pride} in the dust.

You have turned my wailing into my dancing. You have removed my sackcloth and clothed me [with] joy

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing [was] sackcloth. I weakened my soul with fasting, and my prayer {returned to me unanswered}.

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

And this shall happen: There will be a stench instead of perfume, and a rope instead of a sash, and baldness instead of a well-set hairdo, and a clothing wrap of sackcloth instead of a rich robe, branding instead of beauty.

They gird themselves [with] sackcloth in its streets; on its roofs and public squares everyone wails, going down in weeping.

at that time, Yahweh had spoken by the hand of Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, "Go and loosen the sackcloth from your loins, and take off your sandals from your feet," and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot.

And the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, called on that day for weeping and mourning, and for baldness and girding {with} sackcloth.

And this happened: When King Hezekiah heard, he tore his garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the temple of Yahweh.

And he sent Eliakim, who [was] {in charge of} the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the elders of the priests {covered} with sackcloth to Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet.

I clothe [the] heavens [with] darkness, and I {make} their covering sackcloth."

Is [the] fast I choose like this, a day for humankind to humiliate {himself}? To bow his head like a reed, and {make} his bed [on] sackcloth and ashes; you call this a fast and a day of pleasure to Yahweh?

Because of this gird yourselves [with] sackcloth, lament and wail, for {the burning anger} of Yahweh has not turned back from us.

O daughter of my people, gird yourself [with] sackcloth, and roll about in the ashes in mourning, a mourning ceremony [as for] an only child. Make for yourself wailing of bitterness, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

For [on] every head [is] baldness, and every beard is trimmed. On all [the] hands, slashes, and on [the] loins, sackcloth.

"Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is devastated. Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah, put on sackcloth. Lament and run back and forth among the walls. For Milcom will go into exile, his priests and his officials together.

They sit on the ground, the elders of the daughter of Zion are silent. They cast dust on their head, they have put on sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem have bowed their head down to the ground.

And they will wear sackcloth, and horror will cover them, and on all of [the] faces [will be] shame, and baldness on all of their heads.

{They will shave themselves bald for your sake}, and they will dress themselves [in] sackcloth, and they will weep over you with bitterness of soul [and] with bitter wailing.

Then I turned my face to the Lord God to seek [him] [by] prayer and pleas for mercy, in fasting and [in] sackcloth and ashes.

Lament like a virgin girded in sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

Gird yourselves and lament, O priests! Wail, ministers of [the] altar! Come spend the night in sackcloth, ministers of my God, because offering and libation are withheld from the house of your God.

And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all of your songs into lament, and I will put sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head. And I will make it like the mourning for an only child, and its end like a bitter day.

And the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth--from the greatest of them {to the least important}.

And the news reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne and removed his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.

And [the] human beings and [the] animals must be covered [with] sackcloth! And they must call forcefully to God, and each must turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.