What is the meaning of sackcloth and ashes?

A rough cloth made of hair, of which sacks and coarse clothing was made. When put on as a symbol of sorrow or repentance it was worn next the skin, and not taken off at night: it was often associated with ashes. 1 Kings 21:27; 2 Kings 6:30; Job 16:15; Joel 1:13; Rev. 6:12; etc.

Ashes, mostly from burnt wood, were used as a sign of sorrow or mourning, either put on the head, 2 Sam. 13:19, or on the body with sackcloth, Esther 4:1; Jer. 6:26; Lam. 3:16; Matt. 11:21; Luke 10:13; or strewn on a couch on which to lie, Esther 4:3; Isa. 58:5; Jonah 3:6. To eat ashes expresses great sorrow, Ps. 102:9; and to be reduced to them is a figure of complete destruction, Ezek. 28:18; Malachi 4:3; to feed on them tells of the vanities with which the soul may be occupied. Isa. 44:20. 'Dust and ashes' was the figure Abraham used of himself before Jehovah, Gen. 18:27; and Job said he had become like them by the hand of God. Job 30:19. For the ashes of the Red Heifer see HEIFER.

In addition to its use for tents, this cloth of goats' hair was also, probably, what is called sackcloth: "The sun became black as sackcloth of hair" (Rev. 6:12). This was used in mourning and afflicting the soul, as in repentance: "They would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes" (Matt. 11:21). The raiment of John the Baptist was of camels' hair, similar to this (Matt. 3:4), and Elijah was described as being a "hairy man" with a leathern girdle (2 Kings 1:8); the hairy garment giving him, perhaps, that appearance. The "two witnesses" gave their prophetic testimony "clothed in sackcloth" (Rev. 11:3). And in Zechariah, speaking of the prophets, it was said, "Neither shall they wear a rough garment [margin, garment of hair] to deceive" (Zech. 13:4).

From these passages, we see that sackcloth was the badge of mourning, used at times of bereavement, calamity, or individual and national repentance. It was worn by the prophets, doubtless as in keeping with their own mourning and the call to the people to repent.

Rather than answering Bethel’s question, the Lord addressed the consciences of all, both people and priests, and inquired after their reason for fasting and mourning. Had they fasted to the Lord or to themselves? Had they mourned because the evil had come over themselves, because the evil resulted from the dishonour and shame they had rendered to God? The earlier prophets had announced judgment at a time when they still enjoyed rest and peace. Had they fasted then? Then it had surely been the time to sit in sackcloth and ashes so the Lord might remove His wrath. Nineveh, a Gentile city, had acted better than Israel, and God had not executed the predicted judgment (Jonah 3:5, 10). No, they had fasted to themselves and cried over their own calamity, but had failed to repent. They had lamented about their own fate rather than asking what caused God’s judgments and mourning over their condition. To be sad about ruin is not the same as humbling before the Lord.

Fasting must be for Him; it must express our feelings of humiliation, because we have been unfaithful to Him from the very beginning. True humiliation will always bring us back to the point where our path deviated from God’s path.

Verses 1-3. When Mordecai heard of what had been done and the plan to exterminate his people became known to him he rent his clothes. This and the putting on of sackcloth and ashes were the outward expressions of the most intense grief. The sackcloth was a coarse hair-cloth of a black color. Then his bitter cry and wailing was heard in the midst of the city. Because of the sackcloth, which was also used as a sign of mourning over the dead among the Persians, it was regarded as unclean, and inasmuch as the palace of the king was looked upon as a clean and holy place, Mordecai could not enter the king's gate. He had to stand outside the wall. And throughout the provinces as the proclamation became known and was read by the condemned race, there was the same weeping and wailing with fasting. Prayer unquestionably was also connected with this grief.

Mordecai of course very soon learned of this satanic plot of Haman against Israel and he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes in token of humiliation and repentance. Whether he prayed to God we are not told, but he cried out bitterly in the midst of the city, coming to the outside of the king's gate, though forbidden to come into the gate clothed in sackcloth (vv. 1-2).

"And when Mordecai knew all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry: and he came even before the king's gate; for none might enter within the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandments and his decree came, [there was] great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told [it] her; and the queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take his sackcloth from off him: but he received [it] not. Then called Esther for Hathach, [one] of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and charged him to go to Mordecai, to know what this [was], and why it [was]. So Hathach went forth to Mordecai to the broad place of the city, which [was] before the king's gate. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show [it] to Esther, and to declare [it] to her; and to charge her that she should go in to the king, and to make supplication to him, and request before him, for her people" (vers. 1-8).

In the king we see a certain measure of looking to God — he wore sackcloth next to his flesh. Sackcloth is in Scripture a well-known symbol of repentance; too proud to let the people know he thought the finger of God was upon him, he put the sackcloth within, not without. He was like many an one now, who has a certain amount of seriousness, but would not like his neighbours to know. He did not like to own his sin, and would willingly have blamed God or His servant, for this state, which was the result of Israel's sin. Though there might have been religion and formalism, there was evidently no turning of heart to God, in the king, for had there been real repentance, the sackcloth, I believe, would have been worn outside, not in. Moreover, he blames the prophet, and is determined to wreak his vengeance upon him. Man has done worse than that, man has wreaked his vengeance on the One who came to bless, who went about doing good, who healed their sick and raised their dead; Him in their bitter hatred they crucified and slew.

Repentance comes before us in a very remarkable manner in this sixth chapter of Kings. When the people looked upon the king, what did they see? When he rent his clothes, they saw "sackcloth within upon his flesh" (2 Kings 6:30). Sackcloth all through Scripture is a sign of repentance. When Jonah preached his remarkable sermon to the Ninevites, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," they all "put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them" (Jonah 3:5). There never was a sermon in the world's history that produced such an effect as Jonah's eight words. The whole people of Nineveh, from the king and his nobles downward, repented. The Book of Jonah tells us they "believed God" (3:5), and the Lord Jesus Christ tells us in the New Testament that they "repented" (Luke 11:32). Even the very cattle were covered with sackcloth. The Ninevites "believed God" when He warned them of coming judgment, and consequently repented, for, as has been well said, "Repentance is the teardrop in the eye of faith."

Certainly the king could not remedy this matter, and was so affected that he tore his clothes, a sign intended to express repentance, though true repentance was not in the king's thoughts. In fact, when he tore his clothes, people were able to see that he had sackcloth underneath (v.30). The sackcloth was also intended to be a sign of repentance, but he was wearing it as a sort of religious charm, hoping by this means to remedy the bad situation of Israel. This was merely hypocrisy.