Kejadian 18:27

18:27 Then Abraham asked, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord ¹  (although I am but dust and ashes), ² 

Ester 4:3

4:3 Throughout each and every province where the king’s edict and law were announced ³  there was considerable ⁴  mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. ⁵  Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic ⁶  of many.

Ayub 16:15

16:15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, ⁷ 

and buried ⁸  my horn ⁹  in the dust;

Ayub 19:9

19:9 He has stripped me of my honor

and has taken the crown off my head. ¹⁰ 

Ayub 30:19

30:19 He has flung me into the mud,

and I have come to resemble dust and ashes.

Ayub 42:6

42:6 Therefore I despise myself, ¹¹ 

and I repent in dust and ashes!

Mazmur 7:6

7:6 Stand up angrily, ¹²  Lord!

Rise up with raging fury against my enemies! ¹³ 

Wake up for my sake and execute the judgment you have decreed for them! ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 58:5

58:5 Is this really the kind of fasting I want? ¹⁵ 

Do I want a day when people merely humble themselves, ¹⁶ 

bowing their heads like a reed

and stretching out ¹⁷  on sackcloth and ashes?

Is this really what you call a fast,

a day that is pleasing to the Lord?

Yesaya 61:3

61:3 to strengthen those who mourn in Zion,

by giving them a turban, instead of ashes,

oil symbolizing joy, ¹⁸  instead of mourning,

a garment symbolizing praise, ¹⁹  instead of discouragement. ²⁰ 

They will be called oaks of righteousness, ²¹ 

trees planted by the Lord to reveal his splendor. ²² 

Yeremia 6:26

6:26 So I said, ²³  “Oh, my dear people, ²⁴  put on sackcloth

and roll in ashes.

Mourn with painful sobs

as though you had lost your only child.

For any moment now ²⁵  that destructive army ²⁶ 

will come against us.”

Ratapan 3:29

3:29 Let him bury his face in the dust; ²⁷ 

perhaps there is hope.

Yehezkiel 26:16

26:16 All the princes of the sea will vacate ²⁸  their thrones. They will remove their robes and strip off their embroidered clothes; they will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground; they will tremble continually and be shocked at what has happened to you. ²⁹ 

Yunus 3:5-8

3:5 The people ³⁰  of Nineveh believed in God, ³¹  and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. ³²  3:6 When the news ³³  reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. 3:7 He issued a proclamation and said, ³⁴  “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water. 3:8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly ³⁵  to God, and everyone ³⁶  must turn from their ³⁷  evil way of living ³⁸  and from the violence that they do. ³⁹ 

Matius 11:21

11:21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! ⁴⁰  Woe to you, Bethsaida! If ⁴¹  the miracles ⁴²  done in you had been done in Tyre ⁴³  and Sidon, ⁴⁴  they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

[18:27]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in vv. 30, 31, 32 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[18:27]  ² tn The disjunctive clause is a concessive clause here, drawing out the humility as a contrast to the Lord.

[4:3]  ³ tn Heb “reached” (so NAB, NLT); KJV, NASB, NIV “came”; TEV “wherever the king’s proclamation was made known.”

[4:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the Jews went into deep mourning.”

[4:3]  ⁵ sn Although prayer is not specifically mentioned here, it is highly unlikely that appeals to God for help were not a part of this reaction to devastating news. As elsewhere in the book of Esther, the writer seems deliberately to keep religious actions in the background.

[4:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “were spread to many”; KJV, NIV “many (+ people NLT) lay in sackcloth and ashes.”

[16:15]  ⁷ sn The language is hyperbolic; Job is saying that the sackcloth he has put on in his lamentable state is now stuck to his skin as if he had stitched it into the skin. It is now a habitual garment that he never takes off.

[16:15]  ⁸ tn The Poel עֹלַלְתִּי (’olalti) from עָלַל (’alal, “to enter”) has here the meaning of “to thrust in.” The activity is the opposite of “raising high the horn,” a picture of dignity and victory.

[16:15]  ⁹ tn There is no English term that captures exactly what “horn” is meant to do. Drawn from the animal world, the image was meant to convey strength and pride and victory. Some modern commentators have made other proposals for the line. Svi Rin suggested from Ugaritic that the verb be translated “lower” or “dip” (“Ugaritic – Old Testament Affinities,” BZ 7 [1963]: 22-33).

[19:9]  ¹⁰ sn The images here are fairly common in the Bible. God has stripped away Job’s honorable reputation. The crown is the metaphor for the esteem and dignity he once had. See 29:14; Isa 61:3; see Ps 8:5 [6].

[42:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “despise what I said.” There is no object on the verb; Job could be despising himself or the things he said (see L. J. Kuyper, “Repentance of Job,” VT 9 [1959]: 91-94).

[7:6]  ¹² tn Heb “in your anger.”

[7:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “Lift yourself up in the angry outbursts of my enemies.” Many understand the preposition prefixed to עַבְרוֹת (’avrot, “angry outbursts”) as adversative, “against,” and the following genitive “enemies” as subjective. In this case one could translate, “rise up against my furious enemies” (cf. NIV, NRSV). The present translation, however, takes the preposition as indicating manner (cf. “in your anger” in the previous line) and understands the plural form of the noun as indicating an abstract quality (“fury”) or excessive degree (“raging fury”). Cf. Job 21:30.

[7:6]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “Wake up to me [with the] judgment [which] you have commanded.” The LXX understands אֵלִי (’eliy, “my God”) instead of אֵלַי (’elay, “to me”; the LXX reading is followed by NEB, NIV, NRSV.) If the reading of the MT is retained, the preposition probably has the sense of “on account of, for the sake of.” The noun מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “judgment”) is probably an adverbial accusative, modifying the initial imperative, “wake up.” In this case צִוִּיתָ (tsivvita, “[which] you have commanded”) is an asyndetic relative clause. Some take the perfect as precative. In this case one could translate the final line, “Wake up for my sake! Decree judgment!” (cf. NIV). However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

[58:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “choose” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB “wish.”

[58:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a day when man humbles himself.” The words “Do I want” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[58:5]  ¹⁷ tn Or “making [their] bed.”

[61:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “oil of joy” (KJV, ASV); NASB, NIV, NRSV “the oil of gladness.”

[61:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “garment of praise.”

[61:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a faint spirit” (so NRSV); KJV, ASV “the spirit of heaviness”; NASB “a spirit of fainting.”

[61:3]  ²¹ tn Rather than referring to the character of the people, צֶדֶק (tsedeq) may carry the nuance “vindication” here, suggesting that God’s restored people are a testimony to his justice. See v. 2, which alludes to the fact that God will take vengeance against the enemies of his people. Cf. NAB “oaks of justice.”

[61:3]  ²² tn Heb “a planting of the Lord to reveal splendor.”

[6:26]  ²³ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the context.

[6:26]  ²⁴ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the translator’s note there.

[6:26]  ²⁵ tn Heb “suddenly.”

[6:26]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the destroyer.”

[3:29]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Let him put his mouth in the dust.”

[26:16]  ²⁸ tn Heb “descend from.”

[26:16]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and they will be astonished over you.”

[3:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “men.” The term is used generically here for “people” (so KJV, ASV, and many other English versions); cf. NIV “the Ninevites.”

[3:5]  ³¹ sn The people of Nineveh believed in God…. Verse 5 provides a summary of the response in Nineveh; the people of all ranks believed and gave evidence of contrition by fasting and wearing sackcloth (2 Sam 12:16, 19-23; 1 Kgs 21:27-29; Neh 9:1-2). Then vv. 6-9 provide specific details, focusing on the king’s reaction. The Ninevites’ response parallels the response of the pagan sailors in 1:6 and 13-16.

[3:5]  ³² tn Heb “from the greatest of them to the least of them.”

[3:6]  ³³ tn Heb “word” or “matter.”

[3:7]  ³⁴ tn Contrary to many modern English versions, the present translation understands the king’s proclamation to begin after the phrase “and he said” (rather than after “in Nineveh”), as do quotations in 1:14; 2:2, 4; 4:2, 8, 9. In Jonah where the quotation does not begin immediately after “said” (אָמַר, ’amar), it is only the speaker or addressee or both that come between “said” and the start of the quotation (1:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 4:4, 9, 10; cf. 1:1; 3:1).

[3:8]  ³⁵ tn Heb “with strength”; KJV, NRSV “mightily”; NAB, NCV “loudly”; NIV “urgently.”

[3:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “let them turn, a man from his evil way.” The alternation between the plural verb וְיָשֻׁבוּ (vÿyashuvu, “and let them turn”) and the singular noun אִישׁ (’ish, “a man, each one”) and the singular suffix on מִדַּרְכּוֹ (middarko, “from his way”) emphasizes that each and every person in the collective unity is called to repent.

[3:8]  ³⁷ tn Heb “his.” See the preceding note on “one.”

[3:8]  ³⁸ tn Heb “evil way.” For other examples of “way” as “way of living,” see Judg 2:17; Ps 107:17-22; Prov 4:25-27; 5:21.

[3:8]  ³⁹ tn Heb “that is in their hands.” By speaking of the harm they did as “in their hands,” the king recognized the Ninevites’ personal awareness and immediate responsibility. The term “hands” is either a synecdoche of instrument (e.g., “Is not the hand of Joab in all this?” 2 Sam 14:19) or a synecdoche of part for the whole. The king's descriptive figure of speech reinforces their guilt.

[11:21]  ⁴⁰ sn Chorazin was a town of Galilee that was probably fairly small in contrast to Bethsaida and is otherwise unattested. Bethsaida was declared a polis by the tetrarch Herod Philip, sometime after a.d. 30.

[11:21]  ⁴¹ tn This introduces a second class (contrary to fact) condition in the Greek text.

[11:21]  ⁴² tn Or “powerful deeds.”

[11:21]  ⁴³ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[11:21]  ⁴⁴ sn Tyre and Sidon are two other notorious OT cities (Isa 23; Jer 25:22; 47:4). The remark is a severe rebuke, in effect: “Even the sinners of the old era would have responded to the proclamation of the kingdom, unlike you!”

[11:21]  map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.