See under GARMENTS.
We read much of the sackcloth with which the prophets and mourners in Zion clad themselves upon occasions of sorrow. Rending the garment, and putting on sackcloth, are terms every where to be met with in the Old Testament. And at any time when a reverse of circumstances took place, they rent the sackcloth from their loins: hence David is represented as saying, Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness." (Ps. xxx. 11.) I refer the reader to the word of God for accounts of this apparel. (Gen. 37. 34. Ps. xxxv. 13. Isa. xx. 2.) There is a prophecy in the book of the Revelations which some think yet remains to be fulfilled, where it is said that the Lord’s two witnesses shall prophecy a thousand, two hundred, and three - score days, clothed in sackcloth? (Rev. xi. 3, ) Others suppose the event hath been already accomplished.
a sort of mourning worn at the death of a friend or relation. In great calamities, in penitence, in trouble also, they wore sackcloth about their bodies: “Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn for Abner,” 2Sa 3:31. “Let us gird ourselves with sackcloth; and let us go and implore the clemency of the king of Israel,” 1Ki 20:31. Ahab rent his clothes, put on a shirt of haircloth next to his skin, fasted, and lay upon sackcloth, 1Ki 21:27. When Mordecai was informed of the destruction threatened to his nation, he put on sackcloth, and covered his head with ashes, Esther 4. On the contrary, in time of joy, or on hearing good news, those who were clad in sackcloth tore it from their bodies, and cast it from them, Psa 30:11. The prophets were often clothed in sackcloth, and generally in coarse clothing. The Lord bids Isaiah to put off the sackcloth from about his body, and to go naked, that is, without his upper garment, Isa 20:2. Zechariah says that false prophets shall no longer prophesy in sackcloth, to deceive the simple, Zec 13:4.
The sackcloth mentioned in Scripture was, as it is still in the East, a coarse black cloth, commonly made of hair (Rev 6:12), and was used for straining liquids, for sacks, and for mourning garments. In the latter case it was worn instead of the ordinary raiment, or bound upon the loins, or spread under the mourner on the ground Gen 37:34; 1Ki 20:32; Isa 58:5; Joe 1:8; Jon 3:5) [MOURNING]. Such garments were also worn by prophets, and by ascetics generally (Isa 20:2; Zec 3:4; comp. 2Ki 1:8; Mat 5:4).
Sackcloth. Cloth used in making sacks or bags, a coarse fabric, of a dark color, made of goat’s hair, Isa 50:3; Rev 6:12, and resembling the eilicium of the Romans. It was used also for making the rough garments used by mourners, which were, in extreme cases, worn next the skin. 1Ki 21:27; 2Ki 6:30; Job 16:15; Isa 32:11.
Sackcloth. A coarse black cloth commonly made of hair, Rev 6:12, such as that of goats or camels. It was used for straining liquids, for sacks, and for mourning garments. Sometimes it was worn under the ordinary clothes, bound upon the loins, or instead of any other kind of dress; occasionally it was spread on the ground to be lain upon. Gen 37:34; 1Ki 21:27; 2Ki 6:30; Isa 58:5; Joe 1:8; Jon 3:5-6; Jon 3:8. Deep sorrow was hence denoted by sackcloth and ashes. Mat 11:21. Such garments were sometimes the dress of prophets and ascetics. Isa 20:2; Zec 13:4.
SACKCLOTH.—A coarse, dark-coloured cloth, made of goat’s or camel’s hair (Gr.
E. B. Pollard.
(Hebrew, "saḳ"):
By: Joseph Jacobs, Wilhelm Nowack
Term originally denoting a coarsely woven fabric, usually made of goat's hair. It afterward came to mean also a garment made from such cloth, which was chiefly worn as a token of mourning by the Israelites. It was furthermore a sign of submission (I Kings xx. 30 et seq.), and was occasionally worn by the Prophets.
As the Old Testament gives no exact description of the garment, its shape must be a matter of conjecture. According to Kamphausen, the saḳ was like a corn-bag with an opening for the head, and another for each arm, an opening being made in the garment from top to bottom. Grüneisen ("Ahnenkultus," p. 80) thinks the saḳ resembled the hairy mantle used by the Bedouins. Schwally (in Stade's "Zeitschrift," xi. 174) concludes that it originally was simply the loin-cloth, which is an entirely different conception from that of Kamphausen or of Grüneisen. Schwally bases his opinion on the fact that the word "ḥagar" is used in describing the mode of putting on the garment (see Josh. i. 8; Isa. iii. 24, xv. 8, xxii. 12; Jer. vi. 26, xlix. 3). One fastens the saḳ around the hips ("sim be-motnayim," Gen. xxxvii. 34; "he'elah 'al motnayim," Amos viii. 10), while, in describing the doffing of the saḳ, the words "pitteaḥ me-'al motnayim" are used (Isa. xx. 2). According to I Kings xxi. 37 and II Kings vi. 30, it was worn next the skin.
Schwally assumes that in prehistoric times the loin-cloth was the usual and sole garment worn by the Israelites. In historic times it came to be worn for religious purposes only, on extraordinary occasions, or at mourning ceremonies. It is natural that, under certain circumstances, the Prophets also should have worn the saḳ, as in the case of Isaiah, who wore nothing else, and was commanded by Yhwh to don it (Isa. xx. 2). Old traditions about to die out easily assume a holy character. Thus Schwally points to the circumstance that the Moslem pilgrim, as soon as he puts his foot on Ḥaram,the holy soil, takes off all the clothes he is wearing, and dons the iḥram.
The views mentioned above of the original shape of the saḳ. do not, of course, exclude the possibility that, in accordance with more refined ideas, it was afterward made larger, and in later passages (e.g., Esth. iv. 1, 2; Jonah iii. 5) the verb "labash" is used in describing the mode of putting it on.
Bibliography:
Schwally, Das Leben nach dem Tode, pp. 11 et seq., Giessen, 1892.
SACKCLOTH.—The sackcloth of OT was a coarse dark cloth made on the loom from the hair of goats and camels. In the extant literature it is almost always associated with mourning for the dead (Gen 37:34, 2Sa 3:31 and oft.): and especially with the public expression of humiliation and penitence in view of some national misfortune, present or impending (1Ki 21:27, Neh 9:1, Jon 3:5 etc.). For other tokens of grief and penitence, associated with the donning of sackcloth, such as ashes or dust on the head, and the rending of garments (this being a later substitute for their entire removal), see Mourning Customs. In such cases the person or persons concerned are generally said to ‘gird’ themselves with sackcloth, or to have sackcloth about their loins, from which it is evident that the sackcloth was worn in the form of a loincloth or waistcloth, tied in the ancient manner in a knot in front (cf. Isa 20:2 ‘loose the sackcloth,’ lit. ‘untie the knot’). It was worn by women as well as by men (Isa 32:11, Jdt 9:1). The putting of it upon cattle, however, as mentioned in Jon 3:8 and Jdt 4:10, and even upon an altar (Jdt 4:11), is, from the nature of the passages cited, rather a literary than a historical extravagance.
In this custom most modern scholars recognize an illustration of conservatism in religious practice. The waistcloth is known to have been the oldest article of dress among the Semites (see Dress, § 2), and as such it appears to have been retained in mourning customs and in humiliation before God, and perhaps in the exercise of the cultus, long after it had ceased to be the only garment of the people. The ihram or waistcloth still worn by the Moslem pilgrims during their devotions at the sacred shrine at Mecca, has often been cited as a modern parallel.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Garment of rough texture, like hair cloth, worn next to the skin to do penance, or as a sign of contriteness and humiliation.
(óÜêêïò; from ùׂ÷, which was introduced, probably through the Phcenicians, into all the languages of Europe; the root is perhaps Egyptian-Coptic sok)
Sackcloth meant properly a coarse black fabric woven from goats’ or camels’ hair, and then an article of clothing made of that material and worn (1) by prophets; (2) by mourners, penitents, and suppliants; and (3) by slaves and captives. This garment, which was originally, and remained pre-eminently, a sacred covering, was a mere loin-cloth, probably resembling the ihram of the Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, of whom C. M. Doughty says: ‘they enter the town like bathing men-none is excused’ (Wanderings in Arabia, 1908, ii. 263). The prophet Elijah is described as ‘a man with a garment of hair’ (2Ki_1:8 Revised Version margin). Isaiah too wore, at least for a time, sackcloth upon his loins (Isa_20:2); and ‘a hairy garment’ became the characteristic dress of the prophets (Zec_13:4). The raiment (ἔíäõìá) of the Baptist was made of camel’s hair (Mat_3:4), i.e. of sackcloth. The dark colour and tragic associations of sackcloth suggested to the prophet of the Revelation, as it had already done to Deutero-Isaiah, a figure for a solar eclipse which seemed to portend a Divine judgment-‘the sun became black as sackcloth of hair’ (Rev_6:12; cf. Isa_50:3). Before the Final Judgment two witnesses-apparently Enoch and Elijah are meant-are to come and prophesy, ðåñéâåâëçìÝíïé óÜêêïõò, ‘clothed in sackcloth’ (Rev_11:3), a symbol of the need of humiliation and repentance. See also article Mourning.
Literature.-See articles ‘Sackcloth’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) (A. R. S. Kennedy) and Encyclopaedia Biblica (S. A. Cook).
James Strahan.
People put on sackcloth as a sign of mourning, whether for those who had just died (Gen 37:34; 2Sa 3:31), for some personal distress (Job 16:15), or for a national disaster (Est 4:1; Lam 2:10). They also put on sackcloth as a sign of sorrow for personal sins (1Ki 21:27-29; Neh 9:1-2) or urgency in prayer (Dan 9:3). The sackcloth was worn either over the top of, or instead of, their normal clothing (2Ki 6:30; Job 16:15; Jon 3:6; see DRESS).
A rough cloth made from animal
hair that people sometimes wore to
show sadness.