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 (Job 16:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 16:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “I put on sackcloth while mourning
    I sat in this dust while being defeated.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I have sewn sackcloth to cover my body,
    I have buried my forehead in the dust. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I am-clothed in/with a sack and sit on the ground for mourning.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘Because I am mourning, I wear pieces of rough cloth that I have sewed together,
    and I sit here in the dirt, very depressed/discouraged.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 16:15

I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin: sackcloth refers to a coarse dark material made of goat or camel hair. It is a sign of mourning and was worn next to the skin (2 Kgs 6.30). Job’s sackcloth is sewed … upon my skin, and this may suggest that he will wear it permanently, or that he wears it next to his skin. Good News Translation “I wear clothes made of sackcloth” suggests neither the one nor the other. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, however, translates “The mourning clothes are my second skin,” which implies that Job will wear them all the time. The line may be rendered, for example, “I have put mourning clothes on my body,” “I have dressed myself in the clothes of those who mourn for the dead,” or “I wear the rough cloth of those who are in mourning.” In some languages it may be necessary to give a footnote explaining sackcloth; for instance, “Mourning clothes were coarse pieces of cloth sewed together from woven goat or camel hair.”

And have laid my strength in the dust translates the Hebrew “I have thrust my horn in the dust.” To raise a person’s horn is an expression of pride, strength, or success. Here the meaning is the opposite: Job is totally “depressed, ruined, defeated.” Good News Translation “I sit here in the dust defeated” recalls the picture from 2.8, where Job sits in the ash heap scraping his sores. Have laid suggests a vigorless, passive act, whereas the word it translates refers to a determined, energetic gesture such as “thrust, jab, shove.” If the translator’s language has an equivalent metaphor, it should be used. If not, we may also say, for example, “I am ruined,” “I am totally defeated,” or actively, “he (God) has crushed me,” or “God has ground me down to dust.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .