Bible Strands
Isaiah 22:12
On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah addresses Jerusalem's leadership on a day of political panic when the city's officials fortified their walls and reservoirs instead of seeking God. The divine speaker interrupts their preparations to demand formal public mourning.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיִּקְרָא (va.yiqra') means "he called" or "summoned," while לִבְכִי וּלְמִסְפֵּד (livkhi ulemisped) literally translates to "for weeping and for wailing." These terms denote an official, state-level summons to grief rather than spontaneous personal sorrow.
The thread — This formal summons to ritual mourning appears in Joel 1:13 and Joel 2:17, where priests are ordered to wear sackcloth and weep before the altar. It also parallels Micah 1:16, which commands shaving heads and cutting hair as public signs of national loss.
Why it lands — The text demands that the reader recognize the futility of building defenses or feasting when divine judgment is imminent. It requires an immediate shift from self-preservation to public repentance before the appointed day passes.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
Cross-references
- Joel 1:13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
- Micah 1:16 Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.
- Joel 2:17 Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
- Ecclesiastes 3:4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
- Amos 8:10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.
- James 5:1 Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.
- Ezra 9:3 When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled out some hair from my head and beard, and sat down in horror.
- Nehemiah 9:9 You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt; You heard their cry at the Red Sea.
- Job 1:20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped,
- Jonah 3:6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.