Bible Strands
Jeremiah 6:26
O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses the people of Israel as "daughter of my people" during a moment of imminent invasion and surrounding terror. He commands them to halt normal activity and prepare for sudden destruction.
The words — The Hebrew terms חִגְרִי (chigri) and שָׂק (sak) command the people to "gird yourselves" with "sackcloth," a tangible marker of mourning. The verb וְ/הִתְפַּלְּשִׁ֣י (ve/hitpa.le.Shi) instructs them to "roll in ashes," emphasizing total immersion in grief.
The thread — This mourning directive parallels Jeremiah 4:8, where sackcloth accompanies the unrelenting anger of the Lord, and aligns with Isaiah 22:4’s call to bitter weeping over national collapse.
Why it lands — The text demands immediate recognition of impending judgment through prescribed acts of public mourning. It requires readers to acknowledge the severity of the warning before the destroyer arrives.
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
O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 4:8 So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”
- Zechariah 12:10 Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
- Isaiah 22:4 Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
- Isaiah 22:12 On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
- Isaiah 30:13 this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!
- Isaiah 32:11 Shudder, you ladies of leisure; tremble, you daughters of complacency. Strip yourselves bare and put sackcloth around your waists.
- Jeremiah 4:11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A searing wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward the daughter of My people, but not to winnow or to sift;
- Jeremiah 4:20 Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.
- Jeremiah 6:14 They dress the wound of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.
- Jeremiah 8:19 Listen to the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?”