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.

complete verse (Jeremiah 48:37)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 48:37:

  • Kupsabiny: “Those people shave their hair
    and they shave their beards.
    All cut scars on the hands
    and put on sacks.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Everyone shows mourning by shaving-off-of-hair/shaving-the-head, shaving-the-beard, wounding their hands, and wearing sackcloth.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The men will shave their heads and their beards to show that they are mourning.
    They all will slash their hands and wear rough cloth/sackcloth around their waists.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 48:37

Shaving of the head, cutting off the beard, gashing the body, and wearing sackcloth were all signs of mourning (see 4.8; 16.6; 41.5). In many languages translators will add at the end of the verse, “They do this as a sign of mourning” or “… to show they are in mourning.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .