sackcloth

The Hebrew or Greek which are translated into English as “sackcloth” are rendered into Chamula Tzotzil as “sad-heart clothes.” (Source: Robert Bascom)

Pohnpeian and Chuukese translate it as “clothing-of sadness,” Eastern Highland Otomi uses “clothing that hurts,” Central Mazahua “that which is scratchy,” Tae’ and Zarma “rags” (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel), and Tangale as “torn clothes that show contrition on the body” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin). In the English translation by Goldingay (2018), “put on sackcloth” is translated as wrap on sack.

“In Turkana, a woman removes her normal everyday skin clothes and ornaments and wears rather poor skins during the time of mourning. The whole custom is known as ngiboro. It is very difficult to translate putting on sackcloth because even material like sacking is unfamiliar. The Haya, on the other hand, have a mourning cloth made out of the bark of a tree; and the use of this cloth is similar to the Jewish use of sackcloth. It was found that in both the Turkana and Ruhaya common language translations, their traditional mourning ceremonies were used.” (Source: Rachel Konyoro in The Bible Translator 1985, p. 221ff. )

Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing what a sackcloth looked like in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

See also mourning clothes and you have loosed my sackcloth.

Translation commentary on Baruch 4:20

I have taken off the robe of peace and put on the sackcloth of my supplication: There is tightly compressed symbolism here. Jerusalem is saying that shalom (see Bar 3.13), that is, peace, prosperity, health, well-being, is gone; prayer for salvation has taken its place. The use of the image of clothing here can be compared to Eph 6.14-17, where Paul compares certain virtues with pieces of armor (for example, “the breastplate of righteousness” and “the helmet of salvation”). Just as Paul is not speaking there of an actual breastplate or helmet, the writer is not speaking here of an actual robe or actual sackcloth. They are symbolic. Sackcloth was a rough textured fabric that was worn as a sign of mourning or distress. Contemporary English Version makes this clear with “… I have put on the clothes that show I am in mourning.”

I will cry to the Everlasting all my days: Supplication in the previous line refers to petitionary prayer, the prayer of a person in deep grief, a cry for help (“begging God for help”). So here we may say “I will cry out to the Eternal God to help me as long as I live [or, until the day I die]” (similarly Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version).

All my days means “as long as I live” (Good News Translation), “to the end of my life.” For the Everlasting, see the comments on verse 10.

Good News Translation has restructured the text of this verse, but it has done so in such a way that too much emphasis is placed on clothing. It is not that Jerusalem has taken off robes and put on mourning clothes, it is that peaceful happy days are gone, replaced by bitter grief. Another restructuring is possible:

• Like a woman in mourning who takes off her fine clothing and dresses herself in sackcloth, I have laid aside [or, turned my back on] peaceful times and spend all my time begging God for help.

The translator should note that the imagery of this verse will recur at Bar 5.1-2, where it will be strikingly reversed. The translation here must be worded in such a way as to be reflected in the translation of the later passage.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.